


Not Normal

by bluebirdeyes



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, asexual natsu dragneel, bi lucy heartfilia, some discussion of death and violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-19 21:36:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 53,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3625098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebirdeyes/pseuds/bluebirdeyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though she already has a few close friends, there’s always room for more in Lucy’s life, and so when she and Natsu “click,” things quickly start to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Books and Beginnings

I alone stayed hunched over my desk as the other students filed out of the classroom. Staying late after school was a normal thing for me; between cheerleading and student council, my afternoons were filled with leadership responsibilities.

Erza Scarlet lingered by my desk. "You should go home too, Lucy," she said. "The meeting's over."

"I still have a few things to do," I said. "I won't be here too much longer, don't worry."

She sighed. "Don't try to do everything yourself just because you're president. I'm here, too. Take advantage of your VP every so often, all right?"

"I promise it's not much," I said.

"If you say so. But if I hear the janitors had to kick you out to lock up the classrooms again, so help me…"

I giggled. "I get it, Erza. Thanks for looking out for me, but I'll really only be a few more minutes. You don't have to wait for me; I know your ride is waiting." I winked at her. Her best friend Jellal wasn't her boyfriend yet, but it was only a matter of time. And it was him who drove her home after school every time.

Erza blushed as red as her hair. "I'm going," she said stiffly, and escaped the room.

I chuckled to myself after she left. She was so easily flustered it was a wonder Jellal hadn't noticed her feelings yet.

Sighing, I turned my attention back to the paperwork at hand. There was just a little left, but it had to be done today. And the last thing I wanted to do was bring it home with me, so here I was, staying late after the meeting yet again.

It took me another fifteen minutes, but I eventually finished it. I put the papers into their folder and filed it away on the windowsill with the rest of the student council documents. The teacher would find it in the morning.

As I was packing my things to go home, there was a knock at the classroom door. I didn't think Erza or any of the others had forgotten something, and they wouldn't knock anyway. Who could it be, so late after the meeting?

"Come in," I called.

Two boys entered. The blonde I recognized easily — his name was Leo Loke, he was on varsity soccer, and he'd broken quite a few hearts on the cheerleading squad. The other…well, the other took me a moment to assess.

The first thing I noticed was that his hair was dyed pink, but the color was faded and his natural black was showing at the roots. The second thing I noticed was his carefree grin that went all the way up to his eyes.

"The meeting ended a while ago. Do you two need something from student council?"

"So you're on student council? Yeah, we need to talk to you," said Pink-Hair.

Loke nudged him in the side. "Oi, you don't even know who she is? Sorry about him,  _Class President_ , he's a bit of an airhead."

Pink-Hair stuck out his hand to shake. "Hi, I'm Natsu. Let's be friends."

It all clicked in my head. Oh. Natsu.  _That_  Natsu. I should've recognized him after seeing his pink hair. How could I forget something so distinctive? Natsu Dragneel was known for being a bit of a class clown, as well as for his unusual choice in hair dye. I'd never seen him in person, though.

"Hi," I said, taking his hand. "I'm Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

Natsu's eyes lit up. "Oh! I do know you! Head cheerleader!"

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, cool. Loke talks about you all the— oof." He stumbled forward at the impact. He whirled around at his companion. "Hey! What's the big idea?"

Loke shrugged. "Oops?"

I clasped my hands behind my back and looked up Loke. "You talk about me? Why's that?"

Loke grinned and slid closer. "Why wouldn't I? A man is wont to talk of pretty girls from time to time."

"Is that so?"

"Don't listen to Loke," Natsu said, sighing. "He's a bit of a playboy."

I smiled sweetly. "I know. A few of the girls on cheerleading have dated him."

Loke retracted the step he'd taken before. "I did date some cheerleaders, didn't I?" I could see by the look on his face that he knew  _exactly_  what had happened with those girls and  _exactly_  how I felt about it.

"Yes. So could you not talk about me? Or any of the girls, for that matter?" I said.

Loke laughed nervously and declined to respond.

Natsu grinned in approval. "Nice, nice. I like you. Any enemy of Loke is a friend of mine."

"Hey!" Loke exclaimed, but Natsu and I were already exchanging friendly smiles. He shook his head. "Whatever, man." He clapped Natsu on the shoulder. "I'm obviously not needed here, so I'm leaving. See you at practice."

After he left, I asked Natsu, "You're on the soccer team?"

Natsu stretched his arms behind his head. "Yeah. That's why I'm here."

"Right. Okay." I glanced at the door. "Will it be all right without Loke?"

Natsu shrugged. "I don't mind. We lost rock-paper-scissors which is why we had to come as representatives."

"Okay then," I said, leaning back on top of a desk. "What is it you guys need from me?"

Natsu brightened. "Well, all of the soccer balls are really old, but we don't have enough club money to replace them after getting other new equipment, so we wanted a little more funds to buy some good new balls to practice with."

I looked at him.

When I didn't answer, he added, "We already paid for our own uniforms, so we wanted the school to help with this one."

I looked at his empty hands. "Did you fill out the request form?"

He frowned in confusion. "A form? They didn't give me a form."

"Whenever a club needs something from the student council, they need to fill out a form. We have to give official paperwork to the administration for anything to get approved."

"Oh. Well, I uh, don't have a form."

"Then unfortunately, I can't help you. Tell your captain to give us a form and the Treasurer will see if it fits into the budget."

"So you mean I came all this way for nothing?"

"Afraid so," I said.

He groaned loudly.

"Also, it's best to just go to the Treasurer himself for these things. I'm not the one who manages the money."

He pouted. "Okay."

I smiled, trying to brighten his suddenly dour mood. "Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Natsu."

He perked up instantly. "Yeah. You too! Thanks!" And with that, he ran haphazardly out of the classroom. I let out a long breath. Finally, my school day was over. I could go home.

 

Not that home was a great place to be, either. I slipped off my shoes in the entryway to the tiny apartment I shared with my dad. The lights were off. As usual, I was the first one home.

A few years ago, we'd been wealthy, but after Daddy's company failed, we lost everything. Even my little dog Plue had to be sent away. Nowadays, my dad worked as an office drone, making just enough money to keep us in Magnolia.

Oh, and Mom? She passed away years ago, a victim of breast cancer. At least she'd died before our financial struggles, so we were always able to afford her treatment. Not that it'd saved her, but it gave us a little extra time.

I opened up our pantry and picked out a ramen package. The entire pantry was a giant cabinet of ramen. There were some other quick, cheap foods too, but mostly ramen. I usually supplemented it with other ingredients from the fridge, which was what made it such a favorite in our household. Quick, easy, cheap, and flexible. For someone like me who couldn't cook a proper meal if their life depended on it, instant noodles were the way to go.

I browsed the internet on my phone as I waited for the water to boil. A text came in from Levy McGarden.

_Hello!_

I wrote back.  _Hey, what's up?_

_Just checking in. I didn't get to see you in the library today._

_Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Student council took forever._

_You've got cheer practice tomorrow, right?_

_Yeah. Sorry._

_No worries. We still on for Sunday, though?_

_Of course!_

_I'm looking forward to it :) We haven't hung out outside of school in forever._

_I knowwwwww._  I sent a second text:  _Ugh this water is taking forever to boil._

_Ramen again?_

_What else?_

_You never change haha._

_Wait I think it's about to boil now. Dinnertime!_

_Okay. See you tomorrow!_

I smiled as I pocketed my phone. I couldn't go too long without spending quality alone time with my best friend. We could only hang out on Sundays and Mondays, since cheer and student council took up every other day of the week. And Mondays were also when Levy's book club met, so most of the time those days didn't work out either.

It was depressing. I was always so busy. I did it to myself, but I still missed having free time to spend with friends. I couldn't wait for winter break when I could finally relax a little. But that wasn't for a long time, and my break was always cut short by cheer competitions anyway.

I had to make more room in my schedule. I couldn't keep overworking myself like this.

…so I said to myself, as I ate ramen alone after coming home late again.

But that was enough angst for one day. I stood up and clapped my hands to my cheeks before clearing my plate and retreating back to my room. I had things to do, and wallowing in self-pity wasn't going to get them done. I could always come back to that later.

 

Saturday went by quickly. School had only just started, so cheer was also in its beginning weeks. I spent half of practice coaching some new girls on the basic cheers we did at games, and the other half cheering alongside everybody else as we learned our competition choreography.

I stayed late after practice to work out our schedule with the two teachers in charge of the cheer squad. Well, they weren't teachers; Mirajane Strauss and Freed Justine were both school counselors, and liked to be called Miss Mira and Mr. Freed respectively. The cheer girls were the only students to have the privilege of calling any teachers by their first names, though we did still need to use honorifics.

As soon as I got home, I checked the finalized cheer schedule with the swim meet dates. Only one didn't conflict with my competitions or practice days.

I sighed. Juvia Lockser was one of my best friends, and we always supported each other at competitions when possible. But it seemed that luck wasn't on our side this year either. She could come see me once or twice, and I could watch her swim once. But other than that, we'd have to do without each other in the audience.

I talked about it with Levy the next day. "So you have to go to Juvia's swim meets in my place, okay?" I insisted.

"Don't worry, I was planning to anyway," she said. "You're not going to have any free time again this year."

I groaned. "Tell me about it. This is what I get for becoming cheer captain  _and_  student president."

"I told you that enthusiasm would come back to bite you."

"Whatever," I sighed, rolling over onto my front. We were lying on her bedroom floor, a pencil and notebook in my hands and a novel in Levy's. "Might as well enjoy days like these while we can."

"Hurry up and finish that story so I can read it."

"I'm working on it," I said. "Have patience."

"Have you ever seen me patient about books?"

"No," I said, "but I'm not anywhere near finishing so you're going to need it."

She sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll be quiet now."

 

I was still working on that story on Tuesday at lunch, Levy fidgeting next to me, resisting the urge to watch over my shoulder. But she knew very well how much I hated that, so she resiliently resisted the temptation.

I was just getting to the climax when I heard a shout.

"Hide me!"

I looked up, startled. Pink hair. "Natsu?"

He squeezed between Levy and me, cowering behind the table. "Erza caught me and Gray fighting and now she's after us." Gray Fullbuster, also on the soccer team. Juvia always talked about him.

"Where's Gray?"

"Don't know, don't care. I'm just trying not to be killed right now."

"You were the one fighting; you should just take your punishment."

"No, I'm too young to die!" Natsu wailed.

"She won't kill you," I said, rolling my eyes.

I saw Erza enter the cafeteria and look around. Natsu ducked under the table, but it was too late. She'd seen him.

She came storming over, sending Natsu huddling deeper between Levy and me, as if that could hide him from the oncoming fury.

"Natsu Dragneel." Erza stomped over. She paused and took a note of my presence. "Hi, Lucy."

"Hi."

"Natsu Dragneel, you're coming with me to the principal's office.  _Now._ "

Natsu looked up at me with puppy eyes as Erza dragged him away by his arm. "Lucy, helpppp," he cried. I just smiled and waved my fingers at him.

"That was weird," Levy said.

"That kid is weird," I said.

She laughed. "I've heard as much. Jet's on the soccer team and Droy does bboying with him. They've talked about him when we were in the library once."

"And you actually listened? While reading?" I teased.

"I do listen to them sometimes!" she protested, giggling. She wrinkled her nose, making a face that I swore made my heart beat a little faster. "It wasn't a very interesting book."

I smiled. Levy was the cutest. I grabbed her in a hug, smothering her in my chest. "You're so adorable," I cooed, rocking her back and forth.

"Lucy, you're smothering me," Levy laughed. She pushed herself away. "I'm not that cute," she said.

"Nope, you are," I said, pointing my straw at her. I stuck it back in my juice box and took a sip.

"When did you meet Natsu, by the way?" she said. "He seemed to know you, but I don't remember you being friends with him."

"I met him the other day. Soccer team wants a little extra money in their budget to get new balls."

"Did they get it?"

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p.' "Didn't fill out the form."

Levy laughed. "The usual problem, then."

"Nobody ever fills out the form," I sighed. "But we're not allowed to give funding without it, so…" I shrugged.

"You'd think they'd learn by now."

"I know, right?"

"By the way, are you staying after school today?" she asked.

"Yeah, of course. Why?"

"Will you be busy?"

"I just have some student council stuff to take care of. Today isn't a practice day."

"Good. Because I found a novel I think you'll like, and it'd be cool if we could hang out and read later. I'll even go as far as to say that the story can wait. I really want to hear your opinion after reading this thing."

"Of course," I said. "Hey, how about you take out that book for me, and we can go home on the bus together."

"What about student council?"

"I can do that at home," I said. "It's nothing urgent. Tonight, we're having another girls' night."

"Yay!" Levy cheered. She looked up at the clock. "Ah. Lunch is almost over. I'll go check out some books before the bell rings. See you after school, okay?"

I waved her off, then looked down at the notebook in front of me. I'd been interrupted so suddenly that my train of thought was completely lost. I was in the middle of a line of dialogue, and I remembered how that sentence would end, but beyond that…

I mussed up my hair in frustration. Stupid Natsu.


	2. Strawberries and Sleepovers

Levy lived in an apartment several blocks down from mine, short enough to walk but long enough that it was a walk neither of us could make casually. Her parents were seldom around, so whenever I went over, we always had the whole place to ourselves. It was a small apartment, comparable to the size of mine, but the decor was stylish and understated. Everything about Levy just screamed "cute and classy," right down to her living space.

Her room, though, was something else entirely. Books. Books everywhere. Shelves upon shelves of books, and then more books in piles on every available surface. The money she earned with her weekend retail job was mainly spent on buying herself more books, and it showed.

Her library books were in a special pile on the corner of her desk so she wouldn't lose them. She pulled a few books from her backpack and put them on the pile. Then she handed me the novel she'd been talking about earlier in the day.

"Here. It's based on a fairy tail, but with an Old West twist. I know you like fantasy and romance, and I liked it a lot, so I wanted to hear what you thought." Fantasy, romance, and sci-fi were my preferred genres when it came to books. Levy gravitated more toward historical fiction and contemporary romance; very different genres, but each sparked her vivid imagination in a way that had her gushing for hours.

My friendship with Levy, while often chatty and hyper in public, also had this subdued side. For hours, we just lay around in her apartment and read side-by-side, just being in each other's mutual presence without actually interacting. If it were an outsider, I may have felt anxious at the endless silence, but for us, it was comfortable and familiar. More than the giggling and joking around, moments like these were the real heart of our friendship.

The novel was about a rich lady who rejects her high-class life, preferring to join her sheriff father out west, becoming a rough-and-tumble police officer with a mean shot. At a rodeo shooting contest, he meets a latino outlaw who has been fighting to take back his home after the US bought the territory. He's sweet, she's crass. With comparable skills, they find joy in training together when she's off the job, even though she's his enemy while she's on-duty.

And just when they're starting to fall in love, shy and slow, a local robber baron has decides that the protests of locals over stolen land have gone on for too long, and bribes the police into issuing execution orders against all of them. Though an excuse is given to the public, the she sees through it, and rebels against even her father to fight for the truth. Perhaps the man she loves is an outlaw, but this time, she's on his side of the law. But this means not only going against a corrupt system, but also against her own father and friends. It takes all the fire out of her spirit, and in the end her father takes her back by force to protect her, leaving the outlaw to lead the movement.

Toward the end of the book, Levy watched with amusement out of the corner of her eye as I swooned over the culmination of the two main characters' romance.

"'Bisca, what a cruel fate we have become tangled in.' You don't say! Oh my gosh, this is heartrending."

"I know, right? Historical fiction usually isn't your thing, but I read this and thought of you right away. The way they wrote the romance is just the right amount of cheesy."

"I mean, the pacing is a bit off, but the prose is beautiful and it tackles these kinds of tensions in a way that doesn't feel preach-y. It better have a good ending to top it all off."

"I won't spoil it for you. Finish it quickly so we can talk about it."

"Yes, definitely." I poured myself back into the book.

In the end, the couple managed to overthrow the robber baron's grip on the law and ultimately ended up together, slowly forging a new home for themselves in a town that changed for the better. And with that, I finished the first and so far only Western that ever got me to like it.

The reading high slowly wore off and I drifted into a pout. "Ugh, I want an Alzack in my life," I said.

"But if you did, you'd get annoyed at all the attention," Levy said. Always ruining my fun with her logic.

"Yeah, but he loved her so much and it showed. Even when they fought, he never once disrespected her, and still stood his ground. Their relationship was just so  _healthy_. It's sad that I'm swooning over how healthy a romance is in a novel, but it's really not as common as it should be."

"That makes two of us," Levy sighed. "I read one the other day where the guy was such a jerk to her, but later he realizes he loves her and becomes nice, but like...he never apologized for saying all those disrespectful and hurtful things before. She just forgave him because of 'love.' And I see it all the time. It was gross."

"I'd like to say that we'd never fall for such things in real life, but neither of us has a particularly spectacular dating history."

"I don't even  _have_  a dating history," Levy said.

"I wish I didn't," was my reply.

She snickered.

I glanced at the clock and nearly bugged my eyes out. "It's so late already? Wow, where did the time go?"

"Into reading that book," Levy said, nodding toward the novel in my hand. "Hey, while you're here, wanna sleep over? We haven't had a slumber party in what feels like years."

"Yes," I said immediately, not even thinking. And after thinking, my answer was still, "Yes, definitely. I already did all my homework between classes because I knew I'd be spending a lot of time here today. My dad can take care of the chores himself for once. I'm staying."

"Yay!" Levy cheered. "Oh, should we see if Erza and Juvia can come, too? It's a little last-minute, but..."

"It's worth a shot," I agreed.

Erza lived upstairs from Levy, but her business rivaled even mine, so she seldom joined us on our quiet afternoons reading. But today she surprised us by agreeing to come down for our impromptu sleepover.

"She says she'll be down in 10 minutes," Levy said, surprise evident on her face.

I raised my eyebrows. "For real? Wow, I said we should try inviting them, but I didn't think either of them would be able to make it. Now it's turning into a proper party."

"What did Juvia say?"

"Hold on, she hasn't— Wait, there it is." I read Juvia's text and laughed out loud. "She said she's telling her mom something urgent came up for our group project so she's going to spend the night."

"Wait, what group project?" Levy asked, panicking.

"It doesn't exist," I laughed. "Juvia, you bad girl."

Levy relaxed, but soon she was laughing too. "Wow, she must  _really_  want to hang out with us. Juvia never lies, especially to her parents."

"Maybe it was because I told her we were inviting Erza, too. She wouldn't want to feel left out."

"Well, we wouldn't want that either. This is awesome! I don't think either Mom or Dad are coming home tonight, so we'll have the whole place to ourselves."

"I'm so glad I skipped Student Council today," I shouted, stretching my arms to the ceiling.

"And you called Juvia a bad girl," Levy tsked. "Miss Class President, you can't just go around skipping meetings."

"It's only once. They can live," I said. "I do half the work around there anyway. They owe me."

"Everyone's so out-of-character today," Levy said. "You and Juvia are rebelling, and Erza somehow isn't too busy to hang out. It's a Christmas miracle!"

"We should probably get some food, though. I don't know if Erza and Juvia have already eaten, but I'm starving."

"We have...5 minutes now until Erza gets here. She'll just have to watch us eat." Levy stood up. "Okay, I have some leftovers in the fridge. Hope you don't mind using some of them up for me."

"No problem," I said, giving her a thumbs up and a wink.

 

When Erza arrived, it was with a boxed cake in hand. Her parents owned a bakery together, and they always gave in to Erza's epic sweet tooth. It was a rather extreme combination, but it worked out for the rest of us, since we always got to sample her parents' goods. "It's strawberry flavor," she said.

"Of course," I teased. Strawberry was Erza's favorite. "Come on in. Levy's in the kitchen heating up leftovers."

"You two haven't eaten yet?" Erza asked.

"We were reading and lost track of time. That's the same reason for the sleepover, actually," I said.

Erza laughed. "Typical." She stepped inside and dutifully removing her shoes and finding herself a pair of house slippers. I closed the door behind her. To think that she was so awkward when we were kids, getting flustered whenever she forgot to take her shoes off at the front door.

Erza was my token white friend, as I affectionately called her. Levy and I had Japanese heritage (though neither of us could speak it, despite Levy's linguistic genius), and Juvia was from the Phillipines. Then there was Erza, Irish as a leprechaun and with the hair to prove it. Her family had moved to this neighborhood from elsewhere in Magnolia, so the high Asian population here hadn't managed to instill its cultural norms for a few years into our friendship. Now, she came over to our places often enough that it'd be weirder if she weren't accustomed to it.

But there was one thing she never got used to: the longsword hanging on the wall in Levy's small foyer. Every time she entered the door, she would stare at it for a full minute, examining it with her eyes as if she was running her fingers over its steel surface. Levy could vouch for the "every time" part of that statement. It was only a replica that Levy's dad, oddball man that he was, hung up to "intimidate burglars." But really it only served to distract Erza.

"You said Juvia was coming, too?" she said, her eyes still roaming over the sword. I made a funny face at her while she wasn't paying attention to me, but somehow she knew and elbowed me in the stomach anyway.

"Gack! Uh, yeah, but I'm not sure when. She's telling her mom it's for a group project but didn't give any other details. And it usually takes her 20 minutes to get here once she leaves."

Erza finally tore her eyes away from the sword to look at me suspiciously. "What group project?"

"She's lying," I said.

Erza frowned. "I do not approve. But I suppose it is getting her here, so I can't complain."

I pulled on her arm before she could get absorbed by the sword again. "Come on, we can chat in the kitchen. We can't just ignore Levy in her own house."

"Darn right you can't!" came Levy's shout from the kitchen. Erza and I laughed.

By the time Juvia arrived, Levy and I were both stuffing our mouths with some sort of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes from a restaurant. It was a pretty plain meal, but tasted good enough.

"Juvia is so sorry she is late," Juvia said as she made herself comfortable. Her accent was light — she'd always had excellent English — but still noticeable after three years in the US. She also had a random quirk of referring to herself in third person. Why? Only she knew.

"Don't worry about it," Levy said. "We're just glad you could come. It's rare that all of us get to see each other like this, especially at such late notice."

Erza laughed. "Yeah, I was really surprised when I got the text."

"Yeah, sorry," Levy said. "But Lucy was here late, I suggested a sleepover, and...well, it just sort of happened."

"Well, I'm glad it did. Hey, who wants cake?"

"Erza brought cake?" Juvia said. "Juvia would love some."

"No fair, Erza, Levy and I are still eating," I complained, mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"Lucy and Levy can have some later," Juvia said, eyes shining. "Juvia wants cake."

Erza cut slices out of the cake like the expert she was, dividing it in half and then splitting that half into four. She put each slice on little paper plates and handed them out. Erza and Juvia dug into theirs voraciously as Levy and I continued eating our dinners, staring at our two other friends with the most disgruntled glares we could muster. Meanwhile, Erza and Juvia just giggled to themselves, making exaggerated exclamations about how delicious the cake was.

"If you tell me that it's as delicious as Gray Fullbuster's abs one more time, I swear..." I threatened, pointing my fork at Juvia's face.

"I don't want to eat Gray's abs," Levy whined.

Erza put down her fork. "Do you two want to make me lose my appetite?" she growled.

"Hey, Juvia was saying it first," I said, pointing to Juvia. "We're just telling her to stop."

"Juvia only said it once," Juvia said.

"Yeah, but you say it every time something tastes good," I said.

"That is because it is one of Juvia's charm points."

"One of your charm points is comparing food to your crush's abs?"

Juvia huffed. "At least Juvia  _has_  a crush. Life is so boring without crushes."

"Maybe for you," I said. "I'm just fine." Half a lie. Only half.

"Juvia knows Lucy. Lucy is a hopeless romantic just like Juvia. Levy and Erza are, too. Some people are fine without romance, but for Lucy it is boring, no?"

I held up the book Levy lent me and waved it around a bit. "That's what books are for," I said. "Levy recommended this for me today and I was swooning all over the floor."

"I can vouch for that," Levy said, raising her hand. "The entire floor. She even squealed a few times."

"Hey!" I protested.

Erza shook her head. "You two and your romance novels."

"You two have your real-life crushes and us two have our fictional crushes," I said.

Juvia perked up. "Speaking of real-life crushes, Juvia wants to know how Erza's date with Jellal went last weekend."

"You went on a date?!" Levy and I exclaimed in unison, our heads whipping around to look at Erza.

Erza turned a rather bright shade of red all the way to her ears. "Not a date," she said. "We just went to the dinner and a movie. But it was as friends."

I sighed, all the excitement draining from my body. "It's always 'as friends' for you guys. Gotta step up your game, Erza."

"I like us as friends," she insisted.

"But are you  _satisfied_  with it?"

"Maybe," she hedged. "I'm just taking it slow."

"Just be careful or we'll graduate and you still never told him how you feel," Levy said. "Not to say you couldn't be happy with someone else, because I'm sure there are more people out there if you wanted to find them, but we all know you don't want to, and we all know you'll regret it if you don't at least get it off your chest."

"It does feel deceptive to not be completely honest," Erza said, "but you don't need to worry. I can take care of myself."

"We know you can," I said, patting her shoulder. "But we still worry."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"Anyway, that's enough boy talk for a day," Levy said. "Sorry, Juvia." Historically, Juvia was the one who liked to talk about boys: who was hot, this celebrity, that celebrity, dating stories, the whole shebang. We always had a designated "boy talk time" so she could get it out of her system. It was generally enjoyable for the rest of us regardless of whether we actually cared about boys, if only for the fun of getting to look up aesthetically pleasing people on the internet, but today Levy was cutting it short.

"The only boy Juvia is interested in these days is Gray," Juvia said. "Juvia has no more need for boy talk."

"Okay, Juvia," I said, rolling my eyes a little. I giggled at her haughty expression. This crush on one of our school's soccer players was the longest-running and strongest crush I'd seen her have in the four years I knew her, and she was oddly passionate about it. She'd only talked to the guy a few times, and he hardly knew she existed, but for some reason she was completely smitten with him. Juvia had gone from boy-crazy to Gray-crazy, and I wasn't sure if I should be concerned or not.

Speaking of Gray Fullbuster, Juvia then turned to me and said, "By the way, Juvia was going to invite you to come to a soccer game next Monday." Mondays were my free day, and I'd get to spend it with Juvia. We could chat during the game, too. Why not?

I grinned and looked at my friend. "Don't even have to ask."


	3. Studies and Soccer

I'd never actually been to a soccer match before. I'd been to a lot of sports matches, but never soccer. That was more Juvia's thing. But this time, I was coming with her. The results of this game against Sabertooth High would determine whether our team got into regionals, and Juvia was nervous enough to request my presence as moral support.

I was her first friend after moving here from the Phillipines, and we often went to support each other in our respective sports, so even though we didn't hang out much anymore, we still had that connection. No matter what, I considered her a close friend.

"Juvia is so nervous," she said, clutching my arm as we went through the gate to the school fields. There was already a small crowd on the bleachers, and we took our spot at the very top.

I asked if she didn't want to sit near the bottom to be closer, but she blushed and shook her head violently.

"Juvia is way too shy to see Gray up close. Juvia always watches from the top. Juvia can see the whole field from up here."

She was right. The view was great. Though it was hard to see the players' faces, at least their numbers were easy to read. Also their hair color. It seemed Natsu Dragneel was also on varsity.

Just as I spotted him, Natsu also managed to notice us all the way in the back of the bleachers. He jumped and waved, both arms over his head. "Lucy!"

I awkwardly waved back as several other spectators snickered.

He made gestures for me to come down, so I stood up. "I'll be right back," I told Juvia, and made my way down to the field.

"What is it?" I said.

"Why are you all the way in the back? It's hard to see from up there. There's plenty of space closer," he said.

"Juvia wants to sit there," I said.

He squinted up at her. "She's the girl who comes to all our games, right? What's her name again?"

"Juvia. Juvia Lockser."

"Okay. Tell her thanks for always coming. She's kind of an unofficial team mascot, even though none of us have talked to her. We like seeing her up in the stands. Makes us feel like we have fans."

I smiled. "I'll let her know. Good luck in your game today."

Natsu smiled, his usual broad grin from ear to ear. "Thanks!"

I glanced back at Juvia before adding, "And extra good luck to Gray, okay?"

Natsu scowled. "Why him?"

"Secret."

"Tell him yourself. Don't make me do it."

"You fight with him a lot, don't you?"

"And win," he boasted.

"But still, just do it. Don't say it's from me or anything, just wish him luck personally. Please?" I wasn't going to tell him I was doing this on Juvia's behalf; though her huge crush on Gray was obvious to pretty much anyone, I wasn't about to tell Natsu outright. If he didn't know, I wasn't going to be the one to tell him.

"Fine," he grumbled. "No special good luck for me?"

"You're the only one I told 'good luck' in person, right?"

"I'm just a messenger."

" _And_  a direct recipient."

He grinned. "Okay."

Easy to please.

"Enjoy the game!" he said with a wave, sprinting back to the rest of the team, loudly passing along my encouragements.

I made my way back up to Juvia. "I had him tell Gray good luck for you," I said.

Juvia's cheeks flushed pink. "Lucy did not!"

"I didn't say it was from you, don't worry."

She breathed out a sigh of relief. "Good. Juvia's heart couldn't take it if Gray knew about her crush."

"What kind of a friend do you think I am?" I teased.

"Juvia is just nervous," she said.

"They have our encouragement. All we can do is cheer and watch."

"Juvia does not cheer."

"Well I do," I said, grinning.

She laughed.

"Want me to embarrass you?" I said, jumping up.

"Please do not," she said. She continued giggling as I sat down. "Maybe if they need it."

"Just say the word and I'll cheer my socks off."

"Lucy should cheer her socks  _on_. That would be more impressive."

"I like how you think," I said.

 

The game started. Though Juvia was obviously watching Gray's every move, I found my eyes following that mop of pink hair around the field. I could tell he and Gray were both midfielders, but beyond the basic positions, I didn't know much about soccer. So I just watched and took it all in.

There were two guys on the other team who seemed to be giving them a hard time. And when I asked Juvia about the curses she was muttering under her breath, she pointed them out.

"They are Sting and Rogue," she said. "Sabertooth is Fairy Tail's rival, and they always go against Gray. They like to taunt him, too. It is very rude."

"Don't worry," I said, "I know very well that Sabertooth is our school's rival. The girls on their cheer team are ruthless." Their captain, Minerva, was a force to be reckoned with. She was a tall, beautiful latina with a personality as harsh as her gymnastics were incredible. And her gymnastics were  _really_  incredible. I promised myself that we'd beat Sabertooth this year, but it would be no easy task.

Back with the soccer game, the ball advanced toward the enemy goal. I jumped up and shouted, "Yeah! Go go go! Get 'em!"

Juvia joined me in standing up, fists clenched in concentration. We watched as the ball passed between players. Gray passed to Natsu. Natsu paused for only a moment before kicking the ball to a forward, who took a shot at the goal. I held my breath as the goalie reached to defend, but the ball bounced off his fingers and into the net.

Goal!

"Yes!" I shouted, jumping up and down. I let out a loud cheer, joining the applause and cheering coming from the home bleachers. I turned to Juvia. "Gray is really good," I said.

"Natsu was the one with the assist," she replied, but she was blushing happily.

"Then Gray was the one with the assist-assist. Still, they got a goal!"

"There's a lot of time left in the game," Juvia said.

There was still a lot of time, but in that time, the opponent only made one more goal, while our team made two. The final score was 3-1. Fairy Tail High was going to varsity soccer regionals. A feeling of victory welled up in my chest. Who knew watching someone else's sport could be so exciting? I didn't have many chances to be a simple spectator, but at this moment, my school spirit was higher than ever.

The bleachers started to clear out after the excitement ended and the teams had gone back to the locker room. I stood up and stretched.

"That was a fun game. I'll have to come watch soccer again sometime. Thanks for inviting me, Juvia."

"Thanks to Lucy for coming," she said.

"Now I have to go home and write that essay. Augh, I don't want to!"

"Lucy is good at essays."

"Sometimes. But that doesn't make them any less awful."

"Really, thanks for coming," she said. "Juvia would have been so nervous without Lucy with her."

I smiled and linked arms with her as we left the field.

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!"

I turned around at the sound of Natsu's voice. He was running toward us from the school, soccer uniform still on. And dang, did it do him good. Unimpeded by any fence, the view of the cloth hanging loosely around his body was quite excellent. I decided I officially loved soccer players.

"Natsu? What are you doing out here?"

"Come," he said simply, gesturing for both of us to follow him.

"Me? Why?"

"Lucy's friend come too," he said.

I looked at Juvia, who appeared just as confused as I was. But Natsu was already heading back toward the school, gesturing wildly, so we decided to follow him and see what's up.

He brought us to the school gym, where several members of the soccer team were standing around the entrance to the boys' locker room. Oh dear. Hot boys everywhere.

"I brought her!" he said.

Suddenly the team members were surrounding us — Juvia in particular — saying things like "nice to meet you" and "thanks for coming" and "wow so this is what you look like up close."

"Juvia, right?" Gray said, approaching us with a cool demeanor.

Juvia blinked and blushed.

He smirked. "What these idiots are trying to say is, thanks for always coming to our games. We always see you up there, and you're kind of a good luck charm to a lot of the guys here. So, thanks."

I'd seen Juvia nervous plenty of times before, but this was on a whole new level. The words all came flowing out at once. "Thank you, Mr. Gray Sir!" Then she ducked her head, turning the color of a tomato all the way to her ears and down her neck.

I cringed inwardly. She always added extra honorifics when she was flustered. Another verbal quirk she never deigned to explain to me.

But thankfully, Gray just laughed lightly. "You're supposed to say 'you're welcome.'"

"You're welcome, Mr. Gray Sir," she mumbled, embarrassed.

"You two can go back now. The guys just wanted to say thanks."

Juvia bolted.

"Ah, wait!" I ran after her, waving a quick goodbye to the stunned soccer team. Hopefully they didn't take it personally. If they did, that was their own problem.

I found her a little ways away from the school, hand clutching at her chest.

"You okay?" I said, walking toward her slowly.

"Juvia talked to Mr. Gray," she said.

"Yeah. I'm really proud of you. You did well."

"Juvia made a fool of herself."

"No you didn't."

"Juvia can't go to games anymore. Juvia is too embarrassed."

"They like you, Juvia."

"What if they talk to Juvia again?"

"If you don't want them talking to you, I can tell Natsu to pass it on to the team."

"But Juvia wants to talk to Mr. Gray again," she said quietly, almost at a whisper.

I smiled. "I'm sure you will. Just take it one step at a time." I had a strong feeling that Juvia's one-sided love life was slowly but surely going to change.

 

A lot of things were changing because of Natsu Dragneel.

For one, my circle of friends was starting to grow. Thanks to Natsu, Gray and I said hello when we passed in the halls, and Juvia said that the whole soccer team — Gray included — did the same to her.

I also met a few underclassmen who were sitting with Natsu at lunch when I stopped over to say hi. One had long, dark hair pulled into long pigtails, and the other had a short cornsilk bob. Both were cute and petite, the dark-haired one especially so. I wanted to squish her cheeks.

"How's the form coming along? It's been two weeks." Hard to believe, but yes, it had only been that long since we first met. So much had happened with him in that short time. At least, it sure  _felt_  like a lot.

Natsu made a face at my question. "I think they just want to buy the soccer balls ourselves. Forms are too much work."

I wasn't sure if I should be shocked or unsurprised. "So lazy."

Natsu shrugged. "Oh, hey, meet our class prez," he said to two girls he was sitting with. "This is Lucy Heartfilia. She does everything. She's awesome."

I smiled at the compliments. "Nice to meet you," I said.

"This is Wendy, my sister, and Lisanna, my first friend from when I moved here."

"Nice to meet you two." I turned to Natsu. "Do you usually sit here? I don't remember you being in my lunch."

"Nah," Natsu said.

"He's usually with Gray and Jellal and Loke and the rest," Lisanna said. "He can't be bothered to sit with us younger people anymore, can he?" She nudged him.

"Don't you hate Gray?" I said, thinking back to his interactions with his teammates. "And Loke?"

Natsu scowled. "They're the worst. I'll beat 'em to a pulp."

"No more fighting, Natsu," Wendy warned.

"He says he hates all of them, but he hangs out with them anyway," Lisanna said. "They're his best friends. He just refuses to admit it."

"They're all idiots, the lot of them," Natsu growled.

"And what makes you so different?" I said, giggling.

Natsu pouted as Wendy and Lisanna laughed out loud.

"I like you," Lisanna said. "Let's be friends."

"Natsu said the same exact thing when I was mean to Loke," I said. "You two talk alike. You must be really close."

Lisanna glanced at Natsu. "I may have picked up a few things," she said. "He's really loud, so it's hard not to."

"Hey!" Natsu said. "I didn't introduce you so you could make fun of me! It's because Lucy is cool, not because I wanted you two to form an anti-Natsu alliance."

"Oo, an anti-Natsu alliance, sounds fun," Lisanna said, grinning. "Wanna join, Lucy?"

"I'll pass," I said with a laugh. "I already have enough extracurriculars." I glanced at Natsu. "And I'm not sure we're close enough yet for that to not be weird."

Natsu tilted his head. "Hmm. Then let's fix that. Come over."

"Over where?"

"My house! It'll be fun!"

Well this was a sudden request. "Um, I'm always busy after school," I said.

"Then maybe after dinner? If you're busy it can be a study session. I need to get my grades up anyway, or Gramps'll be mad at me."

"Are your grades not good?"

"They're horrible," Wendy cut in.

"Okay, we can study. What math are you in?"

"Trig."

"I'm in pre-calc, but I guess since I had trig last year, I could be of some use."

"Don't have to if you don't want to," Natsu said brightly. "I'm not asking for a tutor, just an excuse to hang out. Then we won't have to be strangers anymore!"

"Once Natsu decides to be friends with someone, he goes all-out," Lisanna said. "Best be clear with him now, or he'll get attached."

"I don't mind," I said, smiling. "Today's fairly free, no practice, so maybe I can come over around 4? Ah, but I don't know how to get there."

"It's okay! It's just a 5-minute walk from here."

"Oh. Then I'll just come by when I'm done my stuff. Can you tell me the address?"

"Wait. First give me your phone number, and I'll text it to you."

"Good idea," I said.

He pulled out his phone and I entered myself as a contact.

"I'll text you," he said.

"Okay. I should get back to eating before lunch is over. See you later!"

"Yup!"

The three of them waved me off as I returned to my usual table.

"What was that about?" Levy asked as I sat down. Besides the two of us, everyone else seemed to have a different lunch: Erza, Juvia, even Levy's good friends Jet and Droy. So we sat together, just the two of us.

"I'm gonna go to Natsu's place to study later," I said.

Levy raised her eyebrows. "Study, huh?"

I could feel my face turning red. "Yes, study. He's decided we're friends, and studying is an excuse to hang out. The other girls there are his sister and a friend. They're underclassmen. He introduced me to them, too. They seem nice."

"Well, have fun," Levy said. She shrugged.

"Thanks. I hope I will. Apparently after this, we're going to be friends."

"Aren't you already friends?"

"Yeah, but I mentioned that we're not close enough for me to join an anti-Natsu alliance with his friend Lisanna. Apparently this will make us close enough."

Levy let out a loud laugh. "And that made him invite you over? So you can join an alliance against him?"

"He's not the most logical person."

"So I see. You sure know how to pick 'em, Lu."

"After Erza, I think I've given up on being friends with normal people," I sighed.

"You'll always have me," Levy said, grabbing my arm and grinning up at me.

I smiled back. "That depends on how you define normal," I said.

Levy smacked my arm playfully and protested in mock offense as we both burst into giggling laughter. I couldn't keep the smile off my face as Levy and I joked around with each other. It was going to be a fun day.


	4. Cats and Calculus

Today wasn't a cheer day, so I got to go home early. At around 4, I left the school and walked down the street toward the address Natsu had texted me. It brought me to a brick house with all sorts of decorations in the front garden. Dragons and fairies. Seems someone in the house liked their fantasy creatures.

I rang the doorbell. I only had to wait a few moments before there was the sound of bounding footsteps and the front door swung open.

"Hi!" Natsu said, grinning widely and out of breath.

"Hi," I said.

He opened the screen door to let me in and let it swing shut behind me. I slipped off my shoes on the doormat and followed him inside.

It was just a typical one-story house, with a kitchen in the back and a living room in the front. He took me down a short hallway where I saw a few doors, two of which had signs saying "Natsu" and "Wendy."

"That's Wendy's room?" I asked, pointing to the door, which was painted pale blue and covered in shiny silver airplane stickers of various sizes. Seemed like someone liked airplanes.

"Yeah," Natsu said, "and this is mine. Come on in." I followed him inside.

So this was Natsu's room. It was very boyish, somehow. Large posters decorated the wall, some of them sports, some of them music, and others just decorative. Dragons seemed to be a theme, and there was even a red stuffed dragon sitting on the window sill. I noticed the comforter on his bed covering most of the gap below it, but one corner was still exposed and I could see clutter haphazardly stuffed underneath it. Evidence of a last-second cleaning job. I was guilty of the same on occasion, so I easily recognized the signs. I bet the closet door was hiding a lot of things as well.

A low table was set up in the middle of the room, a mat on either side and a pile of school things on top of it. "Are we studying in here?" I asked.

"Yeah. Gramps usually watches TV in the living room so it gets noisy in there," he said, plopping himself down on the floor. I followed suit.

"You live with your grandfather?" I said.

He reached for the back of his neck. It was a nervous habit of his, I was noticing. "He's actually my foster father," he explained. "We just call him 'Gramps.'"

"Oh. I see."

"I started living here when I was…" He paused to count. "I think I was nine or something. Wendy's his foster daughter, too. She came at the same time, so we feel like blood siblings."

"It's nice that you get along with your family, though. Even blood relatives don't always have that," I said.

"How about you?"

"Well, I live with my dad," I said. "It's just me and him."

"Oh. Divorce?"

"My mom had breast cancer when I was little. She didn't quite make it through."

"I'm sorry," Natsu said.

"It was a long time ago. My dad and I don't really get along, but we make it work. Believe it or not, things have actually gotten a lot better after he lost the company," I laughed.

"Your dad's a businessman?"

"Yeah, he used to run a bank but it went bankrupt after the recession. You may have heard of it — Magnolia Bank?"

"Oh! I have!" he said.

"Yeah. We used to be quite well-off, as you can imagine. But a few years ago, we lost everything, and now Dad's just a cubical drone. He's strangely happy though, so it works out." I shrugged.

"I see," Natsu said, his face solemn. "You told me your back story, so I might as well mention that my parents— Well, they were teenage parents and I never knew them, but I lived with my adopted dad. He went missing seven years ago, and nobody could find him. Cold case. So that's how I ended up here."

"Wow," I said. "That's really rough."

"Yeah, tell me about it." He perked up, grinning. "Well, now we know each other better. We count as friends now, yeah?"

I smiled hesitantly. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Now, let's study!" he cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

I laughed at his antics as I got my notebooks from my backpack. Natsu peered at them as I opened my math textbook.

"Looks complicated," he said.

"Let's just study our own thing for now," I said.

Natsu nodded. "Got it."

We settled down to study. But it was only a few minutes before the sound of a closing door broke Natsu from his concentration.

He jumped up. "That's Gramps." He rushed out. I heard some shouting and then footsteps coming back to the room. I watched as the door swung open a little wider. "Gramps, I have a friend over. This is Lucy. Know her?"

When his "Gramps" stepped through the door, I was speechless. I tried to form words, but my lips didn't move.

Natsu's "Gramps" was Mr. Makarov, the whacky Russian history teacher.

"Lucy Heartfilia!" he exclaimed in his trademark accent, breaking the stunned silence. "I didn't know you were friends with my Natsu!"

My mouth finally started working. "I—I didn't know you were…" Nope, words died again.

Makarov laughed. "I get that every time Natsu makes a new friend. We don't exactly advertise it at school, so it's understandable. Not sure what an old single man like me is doing as a parent, anyway."

"Don't say that, Gramps," Natsu said affectionately.

Makarov put a hand on Natsu's shoulder. "Well, I've said hi, so I'll leave you two in peace. Have fun. But not too much fun." He winked.

A shiver ran down my spine. Makarov and his innuendos were infamous. I'd never had one directed at me personally before, but I guess I should've considered myself lucky it was a mild one.

After Natsu was finished protesting to his laughing guardian, he came back in and sat down in a huff. A little gray kitty followed him.

"C'mere, Happy," he said, beckoning to the cat. He scratched behind its ears. "Gramps is being mean again and saying weird stuff," he told it.

"You have a cat," I noted.

"Yeah. His name is Happy." He picked the cat up and held it. Somehow I was surprised at how easily and tenderly he handled the animal. "Wendy and I each have one. Wendy's is white and usually hangs out in her room. Happy likes to go all over, but of course he likes me the best. Isn't that right, Happy?" He nuzzled the cat's face and it mewed in response.

So. Cute. Boys and cats were the best combination.

"Can I hold him?" I asked, reaching out my arms.

Natsu passed him over and I took Happy into my arms. I let him sniff my hand, and once he had me identified, he snuggled closer into my chest and began to purr.

"He's so friendly," I said, petting him.

"Happy's the best," Natsu bragged.

"Now how am I supposed to get any studying done?" I said. "Your cat is just too cute."

"I know," Natsu said, still in a boasting mood. Then again, when was he  _not_  in a boasting mood?

I lowered Happy into my lap, and he comfortably settled in. I petted him absentmindedly with one hand and picked up my pencil in the other.

"He really likes you," Natsu noted. "He usually comes back to me after letting guests touch him."

"I like him too," I said. "We don't have any pets at home, but I've always wanted a cat."

"Well, you can come over anytime if you want to play with Happy," Natsu offered. "I'm not sure I can say the same about Charle — that's Wendy's cat — but if Happy likes you this much, I'm sure it'll be fine if you keep coming around."

"I just might have to take you up on that offer," I said. "Who can resist this cuddly softness?"

Natsu grinned. "Happy's the best. The best," he repeated.

"Are you talking about Charle?" a small voice said.

I turned around to see Wendy poking her head through the doorway. "Wendy!" I said.

"Hi, Lucy," she said, stepping into the doorway, hands clasped behind her back. "Natsu, you should really stop saying bad things about Charle. That's why she doesn't like you."

"She's a cat, Wendy."

"She can still understand your feelings! Happy knows what you're feeling too, right?"

Natsu looked at the cat curled up in my lap. "Yeah. But Charle doesn't like anyone."

Wendy rocked from heels to toes and back again. "Lucy, do you have any pets?"

"Me?" I said. "We used to, a dog named Plue."

"Not anymore?"

"No, we had to give him away when we moved."

"Oh," she said. "That's sad."

"He has a new home now," I said. The little girl whose family we gave him away to seemed really sweet, so I wasn't really worried for his wellbeing. Still, I did miss him.

"Well you can come over anytime you want and play with Happy," Natsu said, leaning forward with that goofy grin of his.

"Charle too," Wendy piped up.

"If she doesn't scratch your face off," Natsu mumbled.

"Charle isn't like that!" Wendy insisted.

I laughed. I was an only child, and most of my friends were too, so it was fun seeing their bantering sibling dynamic.

Natsu seemed incensed by my amusement. "Get out of my room, this is my friend," he said, grabbing my arm protectively.

"Fine," Wendy said, retreating to the door with only her head still in. "But I'm telling Gramps you're being mean." She stuck out her tongue and disappeared.

"Wendy!" he shouted after her, but she didn't reappear.

"Your sister's cute," I said.

Natsu crossed his legs and relaxed. "Yeah," he said, a hand on the back of his neck. "She's a pest sometimes, but she has her good points. Today's she's just being a pest."

"I guess everyone feels that way about their younger siblings."

"She was worse in middle school. I don't even wanna think about it," Natsu groaned, flopping back onto the floor.

I leaned over the table to look at him. "They're rough years for everybody. When I was in middle school, I had braces and was a total geek. I dated this guy called Dan Straight — he doesn't go to our school anymore, but his name describes him pretty well: a typical straight guy who was mainly interested in me because I, uh, hit puberty early. It went about as well as you'd expect any middle school relationship to go." I laughed lightly. "That's actually the  _least_  awkward of my middle school stories, but even so, I like to think I turned out all right."

There were a few moments of awkward silence when I wondered if I'd said something weird. Was it my puberty comment? I didn't think it was anything to be particularly fazed over, but why wasn't Natsu responding?

Then a noise came from him that could only be described as constipated giggling that slowly grew into full-on cackling laughter. I flushed in embarrassment.

"I didn't think it was  _that_  funny," I mumbled, hiding my red cheeks.

"No, no, I'm just picturing you as an unstylish geek and…I can't see it! I can't! Too funny!" He drowned himself in giggles.

I pouted. "Nice to know my preteen suffering is amusing to you," I said.

"Sorry, sorry." He sat up and jumped to his feet. "Let me tell you about how  _awesome_  I was in middle school." He flexed his muscles.

I sighed and smiled down at my textbook, twirling a pencil in my hand. "Whatever, Natsu."

"Hey, don't start studying now! I was just about to tell you about that time when—"

"Natsu." It was Wendy's voice again. We both turned to look at her popping her head in the doorway.

"What is it now?" Natsu said.

"I overheard part of your conversation, and if you're going to tell her about how you beat Gray up that one time, I'm just going to say this now for her benefit: it didn't happen." She gave a small wave as she vanished again. "Okay, continue on."

"Wendy!"

Now it was my turn to burst into giggles.

I actually had a really great time hanging out and studying with Natsu. Contrary to my nervous expectations, things weren't awkward. He was fun. He was easy-going. Those I already knew, but the one I didn't expect was how  _interesting_  he was. I ended up staying way longer than I planned to, too absorbed in our conversation to realize I should've already been home starting dinner before Daddy got home. As an apology, Natsu insisted on paying my bus fare home, no matter how I protested it was unnecessary.

The whole thing was a rather surreal experience, spontaneously going alone to the house of someone I hardly knew, but in the end it'd had the effect Natsu had intended it to; I felt like I'd made a new friend.


	5. Friends and Flirts

I knew our friendship was official when Natsu and his buddies showed up for a football game.

"Yo," he said, waving from the bleachers. Gray, Gajeel, Loke, and Jellal were all with him. So these were the people he hung out with. I already knew about Gray, Loke, and Jellal (the final through Erza), but Gajeel Redfox was not someone I expected to see with them. He seemed kind of...rough...to be hanging with their crowd. But who was I to judge?

"Hey," I said, jogging to the fence.

"You look nice," he said, appraising me. "Your uniform."

I looked down at the cheerleader uniform hugging my body. I had to admit; it  _did_  look good on me.

"Thanks," I said. "Here to watch the game?"

"Here to watch you cheer," he corrected, grinning.

Somehow that didn't surprise me. "There's not much to see. We only do normal cheers during games; if you want to see what we're really capable of, come to a competition in the winter."

"I will," Natsu said. "But that's too long from now."

"He was being really impatient about this," Gray said. "Said we had to go see you cheer as soon as possible, and begged us all to come with him. Since you came to our game, and you're friends now or whatever."

I opened my mouth to tell him Juvia was on swim and they should go see her too, but quickly shut it. I didn't want to do anything without her permission and make her anxious. I'd have to ask her about it later; we'd talked about the possibility in the past, but now that we had the means to make it happen, things might be different.

Instead, I just smiled. "Well, thanks for coming. I really appreciate it." And I did. Not many people came to high school football games to cheer on the cheerleaders. "I'm captain, so I can't chat too long. Enjoy the game!" I ran back to the squad.

I really was glad Natsu was here. Though I was popular among the squad, my split time between clubs made it hard for me to form any close friendships with the girls. It was more like I was an older sister, or a mom, so in the end I didn't really have any friends around during games. And Daddy never came. So having someone come to watch always made me feel warm and fuzzy.

"Why were you talking to Loke?" one of the girls asked as I stretched.

I looked up curiously. This girl wasn't even one of his exes; why did she want to know about Loke? "I wasn't. I was talking to Natsu."

She made some sort of noise. "Good. Stay away from Loke. He's mine this time," she said.

I shot up in shock, but she'd already turned her back and was walking away. Oh no, not another conquest. I thought I'd told Loke to stay away from the cheer members last week. I turned to where Loke was in the bleachers and growled under my breath. There wasn't much I could do now, but he was going to face my wrath if he broke another one of my girls' hearts.

It was a home game, so we cheered at halftime. By the time our performance was over, the marching band was done setting up, and I made the squad sit quietly and watch. Even if the audience was often rude and noisy, I would at least make my girls be respectful when someone else was performing.

"Lucy, Lucy! Lucy Heartfilia!"

That was definitely Natsu's voice. I ignored him.

"Lu~cy~"

Looking around me, the rest of the squad was staring at me expectantly. Sighing, I pushed myself up and went back to the fence.

I marched myself up to where Natsu stood leaning against the fence. Putting one hand on either side of him, I leaned forward in his face. "Natsu, the marching band is performing. Be respectful," I snapped. I turned around and crossed my arms, but I didn't go back to the bench quite yet.

"Sorry," he said. "But your cheering was really good. I wanted to tell you that right away."

"Thanks," I said.

I watched the marching band for a long moment. Well, from my vantage point, all I could really see was the pit in the front and occasional flag-twirling. Marching band looked and sounded the best from high up on the bleachers.

"You like this stuff," Natsu said.

"I would've joined if I had the time. And, well, if they took harp-players. I know some things can be taught, but again, I don't have the time to learn a new instrument," I said.

"You play harp?"

"A little. I took lessons as a kid. Haven't practiced in a while, but if I have time, I'll stay after school in the band room and practice."

Natsu whistled. "You do everything, don't you?"

I chuckled. "I get told that a lot. But it keeps me busy, so I like it."

"What else are you in? Cheerleading, student council president, playing harp after school…?"

I held up my hand to count on my fingers. "Those three, plus I'm treasurer for Spanish club — Levy recruited me, and I don't have to go to meetings so it's fine. And harp is only every once in a while, so I don't lose it. So it's not really that much when you add it all up."

"Um, that's a lot," Natsu said.

"You do soccer and bboying," I said. "That's two."

"How did you know I bboyed?"

"Levy's friends with Droy."

"Oh. Is Levy a friend of yours?"

"My best friend," I said.

"I thought I was your best friend."

I gave him a look. "You've known me for like two weeks." Maybe three at this point, but who was counting?

He pouted, crossing his arms over the fence and resting his chin on them. "I guess I do lots of stuff. Soccer in the fall, snowboarding in the winter, mountain biking in the spring and summer. And then bboying whenever people invite me." He shrugged.

"You're very active," I noted.

"Oh, and I like playing with fire," he said, a wide grin crossing his face. "Does that count?"

"Only if you don't do anything dangerous near me," I said, taking a step to the side.

He laughed and scooted closer again. "It's not dangerous, it's fun."

"Mhm."

"Woah, look at them go!" he said, pointing to the keyboard instruments in the marching band pit. They were performing a particularly fast run, their mallets flying so fast you could hardly see them.

"You should try percussion," I suggested, unable to resist the chance to put in a plug for band. "But then again, you might just end up breaking everything, so maybe not."

"Only if you teach me," he said with that trademark grin.

"I don't do percussion," I said.

"Then I won't either."

I snorted a laugh. "What, so if I tell you I'll teach you harp, you'd do it?"

He considered it a moment. "Nah," he finally decided.

"You're weird."

"Pretty sure you're the weirdo, Luce."

"Says the hyperactive pyro."

"Says the weirdo."

"Natsu."

"Lucy."

I stood up straight, pushing myself off from the fence. "Go back to your seat. The band's almost done and I've gotta get back to my team."

"Whatever. See ya, Luce." And with a lazy wave, he was off.

Letting out a long breath, I returned to the rest of the cheer girls, who were obediently sitting quiet during the performance, but all of them had their heads turned to me with rather suspicious expressions. I made a dismissive gesture to get them to look away.

That boy was making me undermine my own strict leadership.

 

"He kept trying to talk to me the whole time," I said, throwing myself backwards onto the floor. It was evening and I was at Levy's house in her room, complaining about Natsu's overly friendly behavior at the game.

Levy giggled. "Sounds like he's a bit infatuated with you."

"Well, whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon once I'm not a shiny new object anymore. Seriously."

"Just admit you like the attention."

"You know me. I  _love_  attention. But not like this!" I protested. I reached a hand up to inspect it against the light. "He brought his friends along too."

"Who're his friends?"

"Well, he claims to hate them, but the hangs out with them all the time anyway. Gray, Gajeel, Loke, and Jellal."

"I know of three of them. But who's Gajeel?"

I thought a moment on how to describe him. "Hmm, he's hard to miss. Tattoos, piercings, long black hair, smells like cigarette smoke. He's kind of a delinquent type, but I guess they're friends."

"Sounds like a pretty diverse bunch," Levy said.

"When you think about it, that tends to happen in friend groups, doesn't it? I mean, I'm a busy-bee cheerleader, you do nothing but read and write, Juvia's boy-crazy, and Erza…well, Erza's Erza," I said. We both laughed.

"Oh, but while we're talking about Natsu, how'd it go the other day?" she asked. I'd never gotten the chance to talk to her about when I went to his house.

"It was fine. We just studied. Well, we tried to study, but his cat Happy is just so cute that I ended up spending most of the time petting him." I laughed. "Oh, and don't spread this around, but did you know that Natsu's guardian is Mr. Makarov?"

Levy let out a loud shout. "What?"

"When he popped his head in the door I was so surprised," I said. "But yeah, Mr. Makarov has two foster kids in our school, Natsu and his little sister Wendy. Who would've thought, right?"

"Wow. Is it a secret or something?"

"I don't think so, but they don't really talk about it at school, so I figure it's not something to go spreading around anyway."

"Got it," Levy said. "My lips are sealed."

I smiled. "That's why I knew I could tell you."

"I can't imagine Mr. Makarov being a father," Levy mused. "I only ever thought of him as some weird little old man from Russia. I wonder if Natsu and his sister know any Russian."

"I don't know," I said. "They only spoke English while I was there, but I don't know if that's just because of me."

"I guess it's none of our business anyway."

"Yeah."

"Hey, are you free at all this weekend?"

I made a face. "Sorry, I don't think so. Cheer as usual on Saturday, Sunday I have a ton of chores to do, plus that history project that'll probably take up Saturday and Sunday evenings before I can finish it..."

"Sorry I asked. That sounds awful."

"I'm used to it," I said. "Did you want to do something this weekend, though?"

"Just wanted to see if you could hang out one last time before you became too busy. But I guess it's a bit late for that." She laughed.

"Yeah. Last time was  _the_  last time."

"Shucks. Oh well. If I get too lonely, I'll just see if Jet and Droy are around."

"Yeah, go bother them! They don't have much to do, right?"

"They say they're busy, but that really just means they're wasting time bboying instead of doing homework or something. Well, Jet has soccer now, but Droy just procrastinates all day. I get about a million texts from him whenever he's bored."

"I'm sure it distracts you from your own procrastination reading books," I said.

"I'd protest but you're absolutely right," she said, laughing.

My phone vibrated, and I rolled back onto my front to check it. "Finally! Loke texted me back," I said. I'd been wondering if he was going to ignore it, but seems I wouldn't have to wait for his reply.

"What'd you text Loke for?" Levy asked.

"One of the girls said something at the game today that got me worried."

"Uh-oh." She knew about Loke's history with the cheer squad well enough to get the implication.

"Let's see what he says about it." I swiped my phone unlocked and inspected the new message. The contents surprised me. "Huh. He said it was just one date and thanked me for the heads-up about her getting possessive before they even start going out. Apparently even Loke has standards."

"Ouch. Are you really saying that about one of your girls?"

"All I did was talk to Natsu, who was with Loke, and she approached me demanding I tell her why I was talking to Loke. She literally said, 'He's mine this time.' Over me potentially just  _talking_  to Loke. She was okay before, but now I'm a little put off."

"Yikes. Sounds like Dan Straight, female version."

I covered my ears. "Ughhh, don't even mention that creep. So glad I moved here for high school. So glad." Even after our breakup, Dan had never stopped trying to talk me into getting back together. I told him to leave me alone many times, but he couldn't seem to respect my personal space or my privacy. That sort of behavior is creepy no matter what, but as a middle schooler, it was positively overwhelming. No kid should have to go through that, even if the perpetrator was also a kid themselves.

I could only hope he'd grown out of his possessiveness, just like I'd grown out of my terrible habit of dating any guy who asked me out. He was not the first relationship I'd had (but the first only lasted a week so it hardly counted), and hopefully not the last, but he'd certainly put me off dating for a long time. Which was well enough, considering I was still so young. But now that I was older and ready to try again, there was no one of any gender whom I was attracted to. I told Juvia I didn't care, but it was actually a total lie.

"There are plenty of creeps here, too," Levy pointed out. "Loke is one of them."

"Even Loke is a decent person when he isn't breaking some girl's heart. He just has commitment issues or something, I don't know. But he isn't even close to the level of someone like Dan Straight."

"And those seniors last year who kept hitting on you."

"They were gross," I said, wrinkling my nose. "All the boys who flirt with me are gross. Just because I like this style of clothes doesn't mean I'm easy. And even if I was, it's none of their business what I do with my own body. I'm frigid if I ignore them, I'm leading them on if I'm friendly, and I'm a slut if I flirt back. Honestly." I rolled my eyes. "This is why I haven't had a crush since Dan. I attract all the wrong types."

"You just have bad luck. I really don't know how it happens. Well, I guess I do, but you still deserve better," Levy said.

"I'll find someone eventually. When it happens, it happens. And if it does, I want it to be romantic. Like a love story, sweet and life-changing."

"It'll happen."

"Yeah."

Everything would be worked out with time. I was still young, with many years before I could even start to comprehend settling down. There was no use worrying about something I had so little control over, especially with something like romance that needs time to build and grow. But no matter how I reasoned with myself, a part of me couldn't wait for my next love story to start.


	6. Backstrokes and Butterflies

I was romantically and sexually frustrated. I'd told Levy that, and it was the truth. But when I said I hadn't had a crush in forever, it was starting to become a lie. For the first time in years, I was starting to feel stirrings of something other than platonic feelings for another person. Of course, the platonic feelings were overwhelmingly strong; my squish on Natsu Dragneel was no joke. But the beginnings of a squish transforming into a crush — that was also there. And it worried me.

I had my carefully curated circle of close friends, but that circle was quickly expanding to include Natsu's friends as well. I already knew Jellal as a friend, but he was also friends with Natsu, so I started seeing more of him. Gajeel was grumbly but quiet, and I didn't mind him. Loke was still a flirt, but it was all in harmless good fun. Gray and I turned out to be pretty compatible, the two lone voices of reason among the rowdy bunch. Except, of course, when he and Natsu butted heads, when he became completely unreasonable until I had to call in Erza to smack the two of them to their senses.

And then Natsu. Oh, Natsu.

"You said once he decides to be friends with someone, he goes all in, but wow," I said to Lisanna. She and Wendy had merged tables with Levy and I. We all got along well enough that the lunch conversation was always casual and easy, no matter that we hadn't known the other existed until a few weeks ago.

"You know, you're all he talks about these days," Lisanna said as she doodled puppies in the margins of her notebook. Supposedly she was doing homework, but it sure didn't look like it. "He's started calling you his 'new best friend Lucy.' You two seem pretty close already."

"I thought my shiny newness would wear off after a while, but..."

"This is Natsu we're talking about," Lisanna said. "There is no such thing."

I laughed. "I guess I don't mind. It's just a little mind-boggling."

"How often do you two talk?" Wendy asked.

"A lot," I admitted.

"More than a lot," Levy broke in. "I don't think they meet much, right?" I shook my head in confirmation. She continued, "They text all the time though. She'll show me their conversations sometimes, and it's actually pretty hilarious. They even make the same jokes."

"You have Natsu's sense of humor?" Wendy exclaimed. "Oh, no. I can kind of see it though."

"Why do I feel like I've just been insulted?"

"Not an insult, just an observation," Wendy said innocently.

"Ouch," Lisanna laughed. "Anyway, I guess even if I said Natsu talks about you a lot, we talk about him a lot here too."

"Well, we have him in common, so it makes sense."

"Except me," Levy said, raising her hand. "I don't think I've talked to him by myself even once."

"It's just as well," Lisanna said, pulling out a packet of gum. She offered it but the rest of us refused. She shrugged and returned it to her bag. "Natsu's a weirdo anyway. Sounds like you already have your hands full with your two friends."

"Jet and Droy?"

"Yeah, them. It's hard to remember their names when I've never even seen their faces," Lisanna said, laughing.

Wendy turned to me, letting Lisanna and Levy continue their conversation alone about the annoying boys in their lives. "Lucy, are you busy again today?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. You always seem so busy and I wonder if you have any time off."

"Actually today's one of my rare free days."

"So you can come over?" Wendy said, eyes hopeful. "I didn't get to play with you last time. I don't want Natsu to have all the fun."

I smiled. She was really a sweet girl and I'd love to get to know her better, but... "Sorry. I would, but I already have plans."

 

Juvia had a swim meet later that day, and I was among the first there. Most of the attendees were parents and helpers, but I did my best not to stand out. Usually there were more students attending for bigger meets and rival competitions, but since this one was just a normal meet, I was among few. I pulled out my support sign — just "Go Juvia!" written in marker on regular letter paper, nothing that would embarrass her too much — and found myself a spot in the front row of the viewing seats.

Unlike cheer competitions, swimming competitions were fairly straightforward. Swimmers participated in particular lengths and styles, and the order in which swimmers placed determined points. Combined with the dive team's points from both the boys' and girls' teams, the school with the most points won the meet. Of course, in addition to the final result, Juvia's individual performance was what I cared about most.

Juvia was a jack of all trades, master of...well, she was masterful in everything, too, when it came to being in the water. Her favored strokes in competitions were the backstroke and butterfly, though she was skillful in all of them. She usually participated in the 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly, 200 medley relay (as the butterfly swimmer), and the 200 individual medley.

The meet didn't really interest me outside of my friend. Juvia's long hair was all hidden under a swim cap, and it always struck me as strange whenever I saw it. I was used to her loosely curled hair bouncing with each movement when she laughed, but as she chatted with her teammates that piece of movement was missing. But if it weren't for the lack of flowing hair, she would look the embodiment of a mermaid when she swam.

She placed first in backstroke and butterfly, though she only won by a margin in backstroke, and her relay team came in second. As for the individual medley, she was a walking ball of anger after only placing fourth. Juvia always wore her emotions on her sleeve, and the frustration rolled off her in waves as she stomped around the pool deck.

But in the end, she'd done her part plenty enough, and Fairy Tail High won the meet overall. I went to find her after the meet was over.

"Congrats," I said when she emerged from the locker room, going in for a hug. She smelled strongly of chlorine.

"Many thanks for coming," she said, her smile bright.

"You placed really well. Nice job. How were the times?"

"They were normal," she said. "But Juvia needs to get better. Juvia almost lost in backstroke."

"Yeah, that was a close race. I wasn't sure who won at first," I said.

"...and then Juvia placed fourth in the medley," she said, her voice quiet.

I patted her back. "You can't win them all. It looked like you were struggling with the breaststroke."

"Juvia was," she confirmed. "Juvia has been neglecting to practice it lately, so it gave her trouble today. Juvia needs to be more consistent with her practice or she will only get worse."

"Well, you only use it for that one heat, so it makes sense that you wouldn't practice it that often," I said. "But if you're starting to lose it, it might be good to do it more. Just don't push yourself too hard. I know how you can get."

"Like Lucy can talk," Juvia said. "Lucy always practices her cheerleading to the point of exhaustion during competition season."

"Yeah, I guess so. But I'm captain this year, so of all years, this is the one I need to practice the most."

"Juvia just thinks Lucy is in no position to lecture Juvia on practicing too much."

"Point taken."

"There was a lot of homework for Juvia today. What about Lucy?"

"I wouldn't have any if not for history, but I have a  _ton_  of busy work to do for that class. Not going to be fun."

"Let Juvia know if Lucy needs help," Juvia said. "Juvia will also be doing history homework all night."

"Oh, that reminds me that I have something to ask you about. I came alone this time, obviously, but would you want me to bring people next time?"

"Juvia wouldn't mind," she said, looking confused.

"I'm trying to ask if you'd want me to bring Gray Fullbuster," I said.

Juvia paled a little.

"Maybe not then. You don't look like you like the idea after all. I thought you'd change your mind now that it's actually a possibilit—"

"No, no, Juvia would love it," she said, color gradually returning to her face. She clasped my hands in hers and looked up at me with wide, shining eyes. "Would Lucy really bring Gray?"

"If he wants to come," I said. "I might have to send him with someone else, though."

"That is fine. Juvia knows our schedules conflict too much for Lucy to come any more than this one meet. But...Juvia would be honored if Mr. Gray came to watch her swim. Juvia always goes to Mr. Gray's soccer games, and for Mr. Gray to come to Juvia's swim meet..."

"You're calling him 'Mr.' again," I said offhand. "Got it. I'll ask him next time I see him. Maybe I can get Gajeel or someone to drag him. Or maybe not Gajeel; he knows you, but I don't know him so that'd be weird. Erza? I could probably convince Natsu..."

Juvia jumped me. "Juvia loves Lucy! So much!" She pulled back and pouted. "Juvia asked Gajeel but he said it was too much of a bother." Apparently their families lived near each other in the Filipinx corner of town. She insisted he was a good guy, and if they really were friends, I couldn't help but believe her no matter what his reputation said. Juvia didn't lie.

"I'm giving you a great chance here, so make sure to wow him. Then Gray won't be able to resist asking you out."

"Juvia will do her best!"

 

When I asked Gray about it, though, he instantly went from being relaxed to looking incredibly awkward.

"Or...not?" I said, kind of regretting I'd asked. He looked  _really_  uncomfortable.

"I mean, she seems like a nice girl and I guess I like her well enough, but I'm not sure we know each other well enough for me to just show up at a swim meet," Gray said, his voice slow and uncertain.

"She goes to the soccer games all the time," I pointed out. "Every time she doesn't have a meet, she's there."

"Yeah, but that's not for my sake alone. That's just because she likes soccer or something."

Oh, if only he knew.

"Anyway, just showing up to a swim meet by myself to cheer on a girl I hardly know..."

"You wouldn't have to go alone," I said. "Levy goes to them sometimes. You could even bring Natsu. Remember how he dragged you guys to watch me cheer? Think of it like that, except less of a because-we're-friends thing and more of a supporting-your-fan thing."

"Is she really my fan?"

"You can't tell?"

His left eye twitched. "She can be a little...how to put it..."

I sighed. Juvia was painfully obvious when she liked someone. I normally worried, but she seemed genuinely happy this time around and Gray was a good guy. But given how this conversation was going, it seemed the interest was strictly one-sided at this point. I didn't want to push it too far and scare Gray away, but I didn't want to screw Juvia over either. How to proceed?

"Just consider it, okay?" I said. "I can't make it to any more meets this year, and not a lot of students go to support the swim and dive teams. She'd really love it if you showed up. You can even bring Gajeel, if you need an excuse. And if you can convince him to go. Apparently Juvia hasn't had much luck there, which is why she's having me ask you."

"I'll think about it," Gray said. "But no promises. I don't know what kind of impression you have of me, but I'm actually pretty shy about that kind of stuff."

"Cute," I said, ruffling his hair and ignoring his protests. "Just go support your friend, okay? As a favor for me."

"Regionals start next week so it won't be for a while even if I do go," he said.

"What matters is that you're considering it. I just wanted to ask. Whether you go or not is up to you."

 

Natsu was a lot less hesitant. "Of course!" he said to my proposition. "But do I really have to invite that popsicle head?"

"Natsu, he's the one I want to go the most," I said. "I don't want to be the one to say it out loud, but I know you're not blind. Juvia's pretty easy to read."

"She likes him," he stated. "It's really obvious."

"If Gray showed up to her swim meet, it'd mean the world to her. For some reason, she  _really_  likes him. There are other people who can go to her meet to support her, but I think his presence would mean the most just because he's never done it before. He doesn't even really consider her a friend yet. So him visiting her for a swim meet would be a big step forward from her perspective."

"Regionals are next weekend so I don't know..."

"Gray said the same thing," I said, sighing. "It can't be helped, I guess. And competition season for cheer starts shortly after that. The price way pay for participating in school sports is that we're always busy."

"I only do soccer, so I'm only busy during soccer season," Natsu said.

I groaned. "And cheer season is year-round."

"It's okay. I can always come visit you, since I'm free," Natsu said, grinning. "Then we can still hang out. Like now."

"Oi." I looked at the entrance to the classroom and there stood Loke looking very ticked off. "No, you can  _not_  hang out right now. Right now, you're supposed to be at practice, not canoodling with the student president."

"The meeting's over so it's okay," Natsu said.

"Yeah, and guess what else is over? Our five-minute break. It ended fifteen minutes ago. Get your ass back to practice. Coach Strauss is going to blow his lid if you stay any longer." The soccer coach was Elfmann Strauss, the math teacher who seemed to think he was actually a gym teacher. I didn't know much about him other than that he was a big man, siblings with Miss Mira and Lisanna, and kind of scared me a bit. But supposedly he was just a giant teddy bear.

"I am very manly," Natsu insisted to no one, frowning at the mention of his coach. He hopped off the desk he'd been sitting cross-legged on. "See you later, Lucy." He waved as Loke pulled him out by his wrist, grinning the whole time. I shook my head. He was ridiculous. How could he skip practice just to come talk to me, when he even said regionals was next weekend? His priorities were seriously messed up.

Still, though I often complained about his persistent friendship, I definitely enjoyed it. It was no lie that I loved attention, and Natsu was more than willing to give it to me. Even my mother, who was my best friend and biggest supporter as a child, wasn't as attentive as Natsu was with me. It was flattering. I blushed just thinking about how warm and loved he made me feel. It was something I'd never admit to Levy, not even a hint. I was hardly willing to admit it to even myself.

If only I weren't so busy, then we'd be able to hang out all the time and he wouldn't feel the need to skip practice. As it was, we seldom got to talk in person.

I pulled out my phone and found the screenshot I'd taken the other day of one of our text exchanges.

 _I'm sleepy. Going to bed now. Talk again tomorrow,_ I'd texted. I was in a half-asleep state at the time and was passed out almost immediately after texting it, so I didn't see his response until the next morning. And when I did, I absolutely  _had_  to capture it.

 _Goodnight_ , had been his simple reply. Then, sent five minutes later:  _Have dreams as sweet as u r_

Looking at it again now, I found myself smiling. You wouldn't guess it just by looking at him, but underneath his rowdy, simple-minded personality, he could actually be quite sweet. He was clumsy about it, usually preferring to express his affection through teasing and fighting. But every once in a while, just like this, he got it right. And I was defenseless against it. Like it or not, this weirdo pink-haired boy was worming his way into my heart.


	7. Expectations and Uncertainty

"C'mon, Luce."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I came all the way over here and you're gonna turn me away?"

I crossed my arms. I was standing in the front doorway of my apartment, blocking Natsu from gaining entrance. I'd nearly had a heart attack when there was a knock at the door and I saw his eager face through the peephole, but I wasn't going to let that get my guard down.

"How'd you know my address anyway?" I asked.

"Levy told me," Natsu said, tilting his head. Oh no. Here comes the innocent act.

"I'm not going to let you in when I didn't invite you over."

"But when I asked Levy, she didn't think you would mind." He pouted. "I walked all the way here. Can I at least have some water for the trip back?"

I gaped. "You  _walked_?" The distance had to be at least 45 minutes on foot; we lived on different ends of town.

"I don't have a car," he said. "And I forgot my bus money. And I wanted to surprise you, so…" He trailed off, looking at his feet and squirming.

Ugh. When he was acting all innocent and pure-hearted like this it was hard to say no to him.

"Fine," I sighed, stepping aside.

"Alright!" he cheered, bounding inside.

"Take off your shoes!" I called after him as he ran into the apartment. It was a tiny place, just big enough for Daddy and me, but it was still not easy to keep clean.

"Sorry," he said, slipping off his sneakers. "Nice place." He looked around at our meager décor and sparse furniture. Not what I'd call nice, but then again, I wasn't Natsu.

"Thanks," I said. "And I work hard to keep it nice, so don't mess anything up, okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically.

"Here, just sit down on the couch."

"I wanna see your room."

Of course he did. "It's over here." Sometimes it was best just to humor him.

I brought him to my room, where he once again ran around in circles. Apparently this was his way of exploring it.

"Very you," he decided.

I glanced around. Like the rest of the house, there wasn't much, but I had stacks of books in one corner, cheer stuff in another, and I had space posters on my wall. My secret interest: the stars.

"I guess so," I finally agreed.

"So." He plopped down on the carpet. "What do we do?"

I hesitated. "You're the one who came over without warning. We don't have much here. We had to sell most of our fun stuff when the company failed."

"What do you usually do for fun then?" he asked.

I glanced at my book corner. "Do homework. Exercise. Write. Read."

Natsu made a face.

"I'm telling you, I'm boring."

"No, you're really interesting," Natsu said. "You just have boring hobbies. I don't get what's so fun about reading. But I'm willing to give it a try, just for you!"

I supposed I was supposed to feel flattered, but I was mostly wary. Natsu was definitely not the "sit down and read" type, so I didn't see this going well.

"Let's see if I have a book I think you'd like," I said. But after a few minutes of searching, the only thing I found was that Natsu's guesses of a book's plot based on its cover and title were actually hilarious, and sometimes hilariously accurate. So Natsu's short-lived interest in reading was worth it, even if we ended up watching TV instead.

We watched cooking shows, several in a row, and both of us spent the entire time drooling over the delicious food.

"That looks so good," I said of a beautiful chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

"Those wings on the last show are still my favorite," Natsu said.

I laughed. "Of course they are. You and your meat obsession."

"Meat is the best!"

"Meat is tasty, but it's okay to like other things too, you know."

"No," Natsu said. "I am loyal to my meat."

He said it with such pride that I couldn't hold back the snicker that escaped from my lips. He gave me a frown and the usual line about me being a non-believer, which of course only made the giggles worse. He was so predictable and yet so utterly ridiculous.

He suddenly grabbed me and pointed to the screen. "I want that," he said. They were showing previews for the upcoming episode, and food was flashing across the screen.

I glanced down at his hand wrapped around my arm. When he kept touching me like this, it was hard not to be conscious that it was just the two of us in the apartment. With Natsu, it was easy to get comfortable, but just one touch and it hit me like a brick wall.

I tried to ignore it. Speech could drown out the sound of my own heart.

I looked at him. "Won't happen," I said simply.

He turned to me. "Why not?"

"Didn't you say you can't cook?"

"I burn everything. Gramps says I have a skill."

I snickered. "I'm not any good either. And the food on this show uses a lot of ingredients that'll be hard to get, especially when we're both poor."

"You're such a downer, Luce."

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"You're right. I'm not."

This whole time, our faces were only inches from each other, but we continued to converse normally. Natsu didn't seem to notice a thing, but it was taking all my concentration to keep from attempting to close that short gap.

To experiment, I moved my face an inch closer, tilting my head slightly. I saw Natsu's eyes widen. Ah, now he felt it.

"Uh…Lucy?"

"Yeah, Natsu?"

His face was slowly changing color to match mine. "What are you doing?"

I leaned back and laughed, ignoring the trembling in my body. I could only hope he didn't feel it, with his arm still hooked in mine. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't nervous.

"Luce, you're freaking me out."

"It's nothing," I said, extracting my arm to give him a dismissive wave. "Keep watching or you'll miss that recipe you want to make."

But he kept looking at me, an expression of concentration on his features. His eyebrows furrowed.

I smiled wryly. "Don't think too hard. You'll hurt yourself."

The strange expression broke and he scowled. "Hey. I'm just trying to figure out something."

"I'm sure it's nothing," I said.

He leaned forward and tilted his head. I did my best not to look nervous. "I don't think so," he said. "I think it's something."

My heart hammered in my chest as he continued to stare at me. I wanted to look away, to break from the intensity of his gaze, but I couldn't seem to do it. His eyes were so dark, so probing. He was searching my face for answers, I could tell. That little test had been a bad idea. He was starting to notice.

Then he leaned away and I let out a slow breath.

"Never mind," he said. But his face still wore a frown.

I was glad he hadn't read too much into things yet. Yes, there was an interest, a curiosity, an infatuation. But even I wasn't sure what to think of it, and I sure wasn't ready for Natsu to try and make any sense of it either. For now at least, I wanted to keep things as they were. I could figure out the rest later when I was more sure of myself.

And then, after a while, the inevitable happened: my stomach wambled.

There was a moment of silence, and Natsu burst out laughing. "Was that you, Lucy? Ahaha, that sounded so funny!"

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, standing up. "It's almost dinnertime. You should go home."

"What about you? Is your dad coming home soon?"

I shook my head. "He works late today."

"Then let's eat together."

"Natsu…"

"What? I'm here, you're hungry, let's eat!"

I sighed. "Is ramen okay with you?"

"Is it spicy?"

"Um, we have a few different kinds around the house, but there's this one brand that has a kick to it…"

"Let's eat that one," he said quickly.

I smiled. So predictable, Natsu. "Okay. Want egg in it?"

"Yes please. Do you have spam?"

"A little."

We wandered into the kitchen, planning out the ingredients for our masterpiece based on what I had in the fridge. Natsu maintained that he couldn't cook for his life, even if it was only ramen, so I took over cooking while he handed me things and mostly watched.

"You eat a lot of ramen?" he guessed.

I turned and gave him an incredulous look. "Didn't you see our entire cabinet full of the stuff? It's cheap. And I can't cook complicated things. We try to buy different kinds so it doesn't get old, but…" I shrugged.

"Isn't that unhealthy?"

"That's why I put vegetables in it," I said. I held up the wooden spoon I used to stir and pointed it at him. "Except  _somebody_  refuses to eat his veggies, so I won't be getting any tonight."

"I just thought it'd be tough doing cheerleading and stuff when you're not eating healthy," Natsu said.

I turned back to the pot in front of me, poking absentmindedly at the noodles as they cooked. "It's not so bad, actually. You get used to it after a while. It's not like ramen is  _all_  I eat; it's just the easiest. When Daddy's home, we usually cook something more substantial, but when it's just me, it's hard to get motivated to cook anything more complicated than ramen."

The noodles were done cooking by now, so dumped in the flavorings and stirred it around. Finally, I cracked an egg into the still-bubbling pot, put the pot on a trivet, and handed Natsu some chopsticks.

"Eat up," I said. "Want a bowl?"

He took the chopsticks and grinned. "I was right," he said. "You're definitely my kind of person."

"What?"

"You eat ramen straight out of the pot, too, don't you? Gramps always yells at me."

I smiled and sat down. "Well, Daddy's never home, so I can do what I want. Why make extra dishes when you can keep it warm in the pot?"

"Exactly!" Natsu exclaimed. "Nobody else gets it."

We laughed together and began eating, taking turns slurping noodles from the pot so we didn't accidentally bump heads. I also wasn't going to take the risk of having a "Lady and the Tramp" situation, which given the huge amounts Natsu was eating with each bite, had a relatively high probability of happening.

"Save some for me," I said, pushing his forehead back when he leaned over to take another mouthful.

He pouted. "You didn't make enough." But he sat back and let me finish off the rest of the noodles.

Though it took a little pushing, I did manage to make him leave after we ate. The last thing I wanted was for my dad to come home and see a boy in the apartment. Maybe he'd have been okay with it if I told him beforehand, but when Natsu had come so suddenly, I didn't have the time to warn him. So Natsu's visit had to be kept a secret.

 

At school the next day, I marched over to Levy as soon as I saw her.

"Levy!"

She turned around. "Good morning, Lu," she said.

"What made you think telling Natsu to come over to my house uninvited was okay?" I said.

She blinked, confused. "What? I never said that."

"Well he just showed up yesterday, saying you told him my address and said it was fine to come over."

Recognition crossed her face, and then sadness. "Oh. I did give him your address when he asked. I thought it was okay since you two are close now, but I shouldn't've said anything without telling you first. I didn't think he was going to visit you with it. I'm really sorry, Lu," she said.

I sighed. "No, it's fine. I was just really surprised."

Levy smirked. "You had fun, did you? What did you two do in your apartment all alone?"

"Nothing like what you're implying," I said, rolling my eyes. "We just watched cooking shows until I got hungry, and then we made ramyun."

"You couldn't make anything better for your guest?" Levy laughed.

"Hey, you know we don't have much," I said. "And he likes spicy things, so we had something spicy."

"Sounds yummy," Levy sighed. "I had leftover tuna casserole. Yuck."

"Probably better than ramyun," I said.

"Not when it's leftovers."

"Valid point. What the heck even is tuna casserole anyway?"

Levy scoffed. "You said it was better when you don't even know what it is?"

"I said  _probably_. So what is it?"

"You don't wanna know. My mom wanted to 'try new things' from her Joy of Cooking book and that is what she came up with. Of all things."

"Next time, if you have the option, just join me and Natsu if it's that bad."

"So Natsu's coming over again?"

I thought a moment. "Well, I guess I don't know for sure, but he probably will. It's a lot easier to talk in person than texting all the time. We both agreed on that. I told him he could come again so long as he told me beforehand next time."

"Does he not have any homework though? Even we never get to see each other outside of school this time of year."

"Well the soccer team lost immediately at regionals so their season is over now, and he does his homework immediately after school while I'm still at club activities."

"If he's going to do that, I'll have to be more diligent with getting my homework done early so I can hang out, too. Can't have him one-up me. You're  _my_  best friend, not his."

I giggled. "It's not a competition, Levy. But if you want to hang out more in the evenings, I would absolutelylove that. Just don't make your parents mad staying out too late."

"Yeah, that's the only problem. I'll just take your afternoons when we meet in the library, and Natsu can have your evenings. I guess that's fair."

"Glad you two were able to work this out," I said, letting the sarcasm drip from my voice.

She continued, "And Erza gets you all to herself on student council days. And you have more classes with Juvia than the rest of us. Yeah, it all works out. We can share custody." Levy enjoyed teasing me way too much. If only she knew what kinds of thoughts I was having about Natsu recently, I'd never hear the end of it. Well, Levy would probably be okay about it, but if some other people found out... Loke especially. That'd be a disaster.

"...Lu, are you listening?"

"Huh?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I was rambling. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not going to get involved in your friendship custody battles anyway."

"Sorry," she said, laughing. "I was just having fun"

"Gotta have your fun now while it's still only homeroom."

"And before the announcements start," Levy added, apparently jinxing herself because as soon as those words left her mouth, the speakers crackled, indicating the start of the morning announcements. We instantly fell silent, but shared a look as the class prepared to pledge allegiance to the flag like good little patriots. Fun over, it was going to be another long school day. I had cheer practice, and then— and then back home to an empty apartment.

Was it bad that I hoped Natsu would come over two days in a row? Weekday evenings were always so boring, and yesterday had been so fun. Levy was usually too busy, and her parents didn't like her to leave her apartment alone after dark. The McGarden family preferred early bedtimes anyway, so even if I forewent dinner and visited her place, I wouldn't be able to stay long. Natsu lived across town, but he said he didn't have a curfew, so...

I heard a quick buzz come from my backpack and checked my phone. Looks like I'd forgotten to silence it before announcements started, but I was glad I did. It was a text from Natsu.

_Can i come over tmrw?_

So he was asking permission this time. I smiled and typed my reply before shoving it back into the recesses of my bag for the remainder of the school day.  _Yes, of course! You can come anytime._


	8. Secrets and Surprises

Natsu became one of my best friends so quickly, it was almost scary. Once he decided we were going to be friends, it happened, just like that. I'd worked really hard for the friends I already had, so it was strange for a friendship to happen so easily. Being with Natsu was as natural as breathing. And I wasn't sure to think of that.

But as we spent more time together, I found myself wanting to know more and more about Natsu, and wanting him to know more and more about me. We'd gotten close so quickly, but there was still so much more to talk about, so much more to learn about each other.

The main thing I was facing now: the girls all knew I was bi, but I'd never had that conversation with Natsu.

What would coming out to Natsu be like? I still remembered exactly how the conversation with Erza went.

"Erza, we're friends now, so I want to mention that I— I'm bi."

"Cool. I'm sexually attracted to women and romantically attracted to Jellal."

I'd said the first thing that came to mind: "That sounds annoying."

"It is," Erza agreed.

And that was the day we went from being friends to best friends.

My own orientation was much less complicated than Erza's, but would Natsu understand it? He wasn't entirely clueless, but he was remarkably simple-minded. I just wanted him to know without it changing anything.

Then we'd  _really_  be best friends. It was the last secret I was still holding from him. This was the final step.

He barged over to my house so often that it was mostly a matter of working up the courage to bring it up while he was around. It was after Friday's cheer practice, the two of us lounging around on the couch in the apartment, that I forced it out of myself.

"Can I tell you something?" I said, leaning back uneasily.

"What?" He continued to stare at the TV.

"I'm bi."

He looked up and stared at me for a moment. Then he looked back down. "Oh. Okay."

"It's not really a secret, but if my dad found out, he'd flip. I just wanted to tell you myself."

He nodded. "I understand." That goofy grin spread across his face. "Thanks for telling me."

"It's not that he's homophobic," I continued. "My dad, that is. But with his logic, me saying I'm bisexual means I've been thinking about sex." I rolled my eyes.

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, I never think about sex."

"Not even once?" I teased.

But he shook his head in agreement. "Not once."

I leaned forward. "Really? You're not joking?"

"It just never occurs to me. I don't see people that way. Everyone else seems to, but I just…don't." He shrugged. "I don't think it's bad either, I'm not repulsed by it. I'm just…I'm kinda apathetic toward it all."

"Are you saying you're asexual, then?" I said. It sure sounded like he was trying to come out to me, too.

He smiled a bit. "Is that what it's called?" he mused. Or not.

"Look it up," I said. "Even if it's not you, it's good to know what it means."

"Okay. I will. Thanks for telling me about yourself, by the way."

I looked down at my hands. "You're welcome. I was nervous so I'm glad you're cool with it."

"Don't be nervous," Natsu said.

"I've lost a friend over this once back in middle school, so of course I'm nervous."

Natsu nodded. "Sorry. It's just…it's me. It's okay to be nervous, but just know that there's no need. Besides, Lucy's Lucy. It's a part of who you are, but you're still you." He squirmed. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"No, I get it. I'm telling you because I knew you were trustworthy. Doesn't make me any less nervous, though."

He pouted. "I don't want you to be nervous with me."

I laughed. "Natsu, that's not something I can control." Little did he know just how nervous he made me all the time.

"Are you nervous now, though?"

I pretended to think for a moment. "I dunno, Natsu…"

"Hey!" He hug-tackled me, knocking me over so he was practically lying on top of me. "You're not allowed to be nervous around me."

I held back a round of nervous laughter. "This isn't helping," I said, my voice coming out more strained than I'd been hoping.

He seemed to belatedly realize the compromising position we were in — his chin was definitely resting on my boobs — because he backed off. "Oops."

I giggled. "Never change, Natsu." I leveled a glare at him. "But if you do that again, I just might have to hurt you."

"Lucy, you're acting like Erza again."

"You know very well that I can be even scarier than Erza when I want to be." I curled my fingers like claws and inched toward him, sending him skittering behind the couch.

"Eep!"

Cackling with glee, I chased after him, and just like that, we were back to our usual antics, the heavy conversation forgotten.

It was a busy weekend. Competition season was growing ever-closer, so cheer practices were likewise growing in intensity. Our choreography was set and mostly memorized, so it was just endless practicing until we got it right. And as captain, it was especially important for me to be perfect.

On Monday, I arrived at school with a feeling of soreness all over my body. I'd definitely pushed it too hard this weekend.

As I walked from the bus to school, Natsu came bounding up to me. "Hey, Lucy! Guess what?"

"What?" I said.

"I'm asexual!"

I muffled a laugh. He was standing in front of me with arms spread wide. The look on his face was filled with so much joy. I glanced around us, but the sidewalk was mostly empty and nobody was paying us any mind.

He continued, "I looked it up all last night and I think you're right. I'm asexual. Oh, but I still only like girls, I think. So far, anyway. I just don't like them sexually the way all the other straight people do. If that makes sense." He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"No, I get it," I said. "Thank you for telling me." I hadn't expected the conversation yesterday to deviate from the topic of my own sexuality, but hearing about his was nice. It was nice to be trusted in return. And I'd even helped him find the right words for it.

"No problem. Thank  _you_  for telling  _me_."

We fell into step with each other.

"So you're asexual, huh?"

He nodded.

Well, if his romantic orientation still included girls, that meant I still had a chance. I wasn't going to let differing sexual orientations get in the way. Even if I was bi, I wasn't a very sexual person, so him being asexual was a non-issue as far as I was concerned.

Next I just had to figure out his willingness to date a bisexual person. He seemed unfazed by my coming out, but even so, a lot of people avoided dating bi people due to stereotypes and such. I doubted Natsu cared, oblivious to such things as he was, but it was best to make sure before I got in too deep.

I was already strategizing how to get together with him and calculating my chances. I had it bad.

"I wonder what everyone else's orientations are," Natsu said, putting his hands behind his head.

"I'm sure they'll tell us if they want us to know," I said. I knew my own friends' orientations, having exchanged coming-outs with them, but I'd wait for them to come out to him on their own. As for his friends, of course I was clueless as he was.

"True. It's a little hard to explain without seeming weird, so I don't think I'll tell the others. Just you." He turned to grin at me.

I smiled back. "Thank you for trusting me."

"We thanked each other a lot already," Natsu said. "We should say other stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like…you're bi, and I think that's awesome!"

I giggled. "How is that awesome?"

"I dunno, it just is."

"Well asexual people are  _so_  cool."

"Aren't I?"

"Asexuals are like dragons. That's how cool they are."

"Grahhh," Natsu roared, baring his teeth and hooking his fingers into claws. He stopped when I giggled. It was his turn now. "Bisexual people are made of stardust. Like that poster on your wall."

My heart started racing immediately. "Which one? The Crab Nebula? The Abell 1689 supercluster? The Milky Way poster? Probably not one of the planet posters…"

"Uhh…the colorful one."

"So the Crab Nebula."

"I guess so. It's all pretty and colorful and sparkly and stuff. Just like you!"

"Aww, thanks," I said. I could feel heat tint my cheeks. It was actually a pretty nice compliment. Also, he was kindly ignoring my overexcited outburst at being compared to the colorful starstuff that littered my bedroom walls.

We laughed together at our hyperbolic compliments until we reached our homerooms, when we had to split up.

"You're in a good mood this morning," Levy said as I sat down.

"Me and Natsu had a heart-to-heart yesterday."

She leaned forward and raised her eyebrows. "Did you?"

"Well…" I lowered my voice. "I came out to him. That's all."

"And it went well?"

"Yup."

"That's great. And how about him?"

"What about him?"

"He strikes me as a straight guy, but I don't want to make assumptions." Well, technically she wasn't right, but she wasn't entirely wrong either.

I thought for a moment. How to answer that? He said he didn't want to tell anyone. "Hrmm…well, I guess the best way to say it is, I have a chance."

"That's awesome, Lu!"

I giggled and grinned. "Right? Now I just gotta use a little—" Wait. He was asexual. My trademark sex appeal was probably not the way to go. It's not that he seemed particularly bothered by sexual stuff — goodness knows he heard plenty from Loke — but he'd mentioned apathy.

I buried my head in my arms. I didn't want him to feel apathy about me. I wanted to give him butterflies, to make his heart beat faster, to make him  _happy_.

Wow, I  _really_ had it bad.

"Are you okay, Lu?" Levy said, tilting her head down to look at me.

"I'm fine," I mumbled. "Just wallowing in self-pity."

"Okay. Let me know when you're done."

"Thanks a lot, Levy."

"Anytime, Lu."

I groaned and sat back up.

"You're really red," she pointed out.

"I know. My entire existence is embarrassing."

"Lu, you're really freaking me out."

"I can tell. You keep saying my name." I laughed and stretched. "I'm fine, don't worry. I just have a lot to think about these days."

"You know I'm here if you want to talk."

I smiled at her. "Of course," I said. "I'd invite you over tonight, but I have cheer practice every day this week."

"You push yourself too much," Levy said. "You're the only one who practices every day."

"I'm captain. I have to." The regular cheer practices were the same days as always, but with competition season already started, I planned to stay late every day after school so I could perfect my technique. I refused to be the weak link. And if I had the energy for it, why not?

So I stayed after as usual, despite cheer not meeting on Mondays. As a result, I had the gym to myself, just me and the mat I dragged out of the storage closet. I'd been messing up my back handsprings lately, and there was no way I was letting that happen at the competition this weekend. It was time to practice.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I knew it was bad to wear myself out like this every day, but I wanted to fix whatever little hiccup was getting in the way of my routine.

I managed to do a little homework, but sleepiness quickly overtook me. I crawled into bed, texted Natsu a quick  _My first competition is this weekend so don't wait for me after school this week, okay?_ , and then almost immediately drifted into dreaming.

 

For days, I did nothing but practice. I still talked to my friends at school, and student council kept going without me, but I knew I was neglecting them. Still, it was an important time for me. I couldn't afford any distractions. Even schoolwork could wait for now.

Then the day arrived: our first competition.

Though I'd never admit it to the squad, I was nervous. We'd been practicing for so long, if it didn't go well I'd be devastated. I had a responsibility to my team and the upperclassmen to make this year great, and if the competition season didn't start with success, I'd lose all my confidence.

So yes, I was very, very nervous.

We all held hands as we awaited our turn. And then we were up.

As we took our places on the gym floor, my eyes scanned the crowd for familiar faces. I knew my dad wouldn't be here, but I did recognize some parents in the audience. Good. We had support.

And then I saw them. They were sitting in the top corner, all smooshed together, but it was definitely them. My friends.

Natsu was waving wildly, and it was a wonder I hadn't noticed them right away. I hadn't told anyone the details of this competition, but somehow one of them must've looked it up and now they were all here, both Natsu's friends and mine. Even Wendy was there, I noticed. My new and old friends had all come out to support me.

Juvia always came to competitions when she could (she was up there too, tomato red next to Gray) but seeing all the others there too was the last thing I expected. I was so happy.

I started tearing up, but I had to get our routine started so I held back my emotions. I'd had friends come to competitions before, but never so many. I had to make them proud.

 

In the end, we placed second. Not bad, but placing lower than our rival, Sabertooth, was not ideal. We'd have to step it up next time.

Luckily there were exactly zero run-ins with the Sabertooth girls themselves — a few glares here and there with their captain, Minerva, but no confrontations. Our cheer teams had a history of getting into fights, so it was probably for the best. But next time, we would definitely do better than them so I could rub it in Minerva's smug little face.

After I was changed back into casual clothes, I ran out to greet my friends. I didn't even say anything, I just grabbed Levy and Erza into a tight hug, and soon I felt the rest of them pile around us.

"Thank you guys for coming," I said, my voice muffled by Erza's shirt. I pulled back and smiled up at her.

"It was Natsu's idea," she said. "He said you'd feel lonely without us and had Juvia bring everyone."

"Lu, why did you tell him and not me?" Levy cried.

"I didn't," I said, looking at Natsu with wonder. I hadn't even though to invite them, I was so focused on practicing. It wasn't until I saw them in the crowd that I realized how relieved I was to see so many familiar faces. Somehow Natsu had known I needed them here before even I did.

"Even Gajeel came," I noted, looking at the only one who hadn't joined the group hug. Cheer competitions seemed like that last thing someone like him would let himself be seen at.

Levy grinned. "He may not look it, but he's surprisingly a real softie."

"Shut it, shrimp."

Levy just giggled. Since when had they been on friendly terms?

This whole thing was amazing to me. Natsu and I may have merged our groups together when we became friends, but now they were getting to know each other on their own, too. It felt really good.

"Oh, look who's here!" Miss Mira was standing nearby, trademark benign smile on her face. "Great job today, Lucy. I'm sure your friends are all proud of you."

"We are," Juvia said.

"Thanks. See you next week, Coach," I said.

Miss Mira looked around at us and nodded in satisfaction. "Byebye," she said, and then she was gone.

Half of me wondered what that weird look was about, and half of me already knew. Excluding Wendy who was too young and Loke who was with his current girlfriend, our little group was an equal number of girls and boys. And there was nothing our hopelessly romantic coach loved more than some good, old-fashioned boy/girl matchups.

She would be delighted if she knew just how neatly we split into pairs. Out of the four of us girls, Levy was the only one who didn't have a crush on one of the boys here. Funny how that worked out. It was a wonder our groups hadn't come together earlier, given all our connections.

 

We all went out to dinner later, taking up one long table. We were rowdy and probably pretty terrible customers, but I couldn't help but laugh along at my friends' antics. If all went well, we wouldn't get kicked out. Probably. Erza and Jellal were chatting amiably, lost in their own little conversation as always. Levy and Gajeel were on the far end of the table making awkward small talk. They were fine. It was the lethal combination of Natsu, Gray, and Juvia that had me worried.

Natsu and Gray were fighting again. Out of the two of them, Natsu was the most hot-headed and easily provoked, so the fact that Juvia was siding with Gray and egging them on was definitely making the situation worse.

They got louder and louder until I heard Erza and Jellal's conversation pause, unable to hear each other over the sound of the two boys fighting. Ah, here it came.

"Shut up!" Erza bellowed.

The entire restaurant stopped. We'd been noisy this whole time, but Erza was something else.

"Sorry," Gray said.

"We're not fighting," was Natsu's response.

Juvia just froze, wide-eyed.

Her job done, Erza went back to a relaxed conversation with Jellal, leaving the formerly fighting threesome shocked into silence. I could swear I heard someone at a nearby table snickering.

My friends were ridiculous, but I loved them.

"For Lucy, who had an amazing first competition today," Levy said to clear the silence, holding up her glass of iced tea. Everyone else did the same with their own beverages. "Cheers!"

Glasses clinked. "Cheers!"

After the dinner ended and people had to start going home, Natsu lingered behind with Levy, Gray, and I.

"How'd you know?" I asked him.

He tilted his head. "How'd I know what?"

"About the competition. Where and when. I didn't tell anybody. And how'd you know I'd need everyone there?"

He shrugged. "It just felt like you were nervous. So I asked Juvia."

"Not fair," Levy whined. "Lucy's  _my_  best friend, so why does Natsu notice these things and not me? You seemed really confident whenever you talked to me."

"I thought I was confident," I said, "but when I saw you guys in the stands, I was so relieved I could hardly believe it."

"I'm sure you would've done great either way," Gray said.

"You guys should surprise Juvia next at one of her meets. I made it to one of them, but most of the time cheer gets in the way. She needs the support more than I do."

"She has one next week that I'm planning to go to," Levy said. She grinned at me. "I'm the replacement Lucy."

"Nobody can replace Lucy," Natsu said, slinging an easy arm around me. "But you should go too, Ice Princess. How much longer are you going to procrastinate this?"

"I'm not an Ice Princess," Gray snapped.

"You aren't? But you're so cold to her."

"Ohhhh," Levy and I jeered, laughing.

"Hey, she's the one who gets all weird," Gray defended.

I sighed. "I can tell her to back off, if that's what the issue is," I said. "But she always goes out to support you in soccer, I just thought it'd be nice if she had you come to a swim meet once. There aren't too many left, you know. It'd make her week."

"I'll consider it," Gray said. I could tell he was still iffy about Juvia, and there was nothing to be done about that, but even if it was just once, I wanted Juvia to have his support. She'd be so happy. And I couldn't go to her meets myself, so getting Gray to go was all I could do for her.

"That's all I'm asking," I said. "Ah, my bus is here. See you at school!"

"You did great today, Lu!"

"Congrats on not losing," Gray said with a smirk.

Natsu gave me a quick side-hug before dropping his arm from my shoulder. "You looked good, Lucy." He pumped his fist and took a fighting stance. "We'll have to get first next time. I'm all fired up!"

"You're not even the one competing, you dolt," Gray said, knocking Natsu's head.

I laughed. "Let him dream, Gray. Bye, guys!" I waved before boarding the bus, and watched out the window as they disappeared behind me.

As the world whizzed by me on my way home, I clutched my phone in my hands, butterflies still making my heart tremble with happiness. I still couldn't believe they actually surprised me at my first competition of the year. All of them. At once. Now that I was alone, I could let the feelings overflow, and boy were they overflowing.

I loved my friends. I loved my friends so, so much.


	9. Wins and Wonders

Normally it was just my cheer practices that coincided with Juvia's swim meets, but this week we had our competitions at the same time. As I waited impatiently for our turn on the gym floor at Sabertooth, I knew Juvia was back at Fairy Tail High competing in a home meet.

I was doing my best not to check my phone. I knew Levy would update me about how Juvia did, but I needed to focus. My friends weren't here this week, but their appearance last week was enough to last me. But would we be able to snatch first place on Sabertooth's home turf?

Minerva didn't seem to think so. "Ready to fall short two weeks in a row, Heartfilia?" she said, approaching with two of the other Sabertooth girls in tow. The Sabertooth cheerleading uniform body was gold with purple sleeves, with "Sabertooth" written across the front and trimmed in purple. It was simple but sexy on Minerva's body. But I had confidence in my own looks, so I didn't let the exaggerated sway of her hips intimidate me.

"What makes you so confident? Last week was a fluke for Fairy Tail," I said, crossing my arms. "Today's the day we claim first, and we plan to stay there."

"Oh yeah? But it seems you're in pretty bad shape from last week. We beat you so bad that you bled all over your beautiful uniforms," she said, gesturing to the criss-crossed lines of dark red that decorated our uniforms from the collarbone all the way down the sleeves. The uniforms were new this year, so the dig wasn't quite as pathetic as it could've been otherwise.

I smirked. "If you want to compare our school colors to blood, fine. But who ever said it was  _our_  blood?"

Minerva huffed and turned her attention to the squad behind me. "Lots of new faces this year. No wonder you were struggling so hard." She clicked her tongue as if in pity. But there was no way I was going to let her undermine my girls' confidence.

"New faces who have more talent in their pinky fingers than your entire squad combined. Be careful whom you look down on. You'll just make yourself look a fool."

"I'd be a fool  _not_  to look down on Fairy Tail. May I remind you that Sabertooth got first place?"

"That was last week. This is a new competition, and we  _will_  be taking that trophy right from your grubby little fingers. Best prepare yourself."

Minerva scoffed but turned and left. Her bitchy insult game was weak today; meanwhile. I was in top form. I'd won this round. Hopefully we could take this verbal confidence to the gym floor, too. Every time I saw her face, I got the strong urge to wipe the smug smirk right off it, and a win was the perfect way to do so. The frustrated and offended look suited her much better, I thought.

I could hear muffled echoes of previous team finishing up, so I gathered the girls in a circle.

"We're gonna crush 'em today, all right?"

"Yeah!" everyone chorused.

I started our pre-competition cheer. "Let's get fired up," I shouted to start the group chant.

"Let's. Get. Fired up!  
Fairy Tail is here to stay!  
Let's. Get. Fired up!  
Blow them all away!"

We all cheered and jumped together, just as the volunteers started ushering us toward the main gym for our turn. This was it. I could feel the tension in the air. Sabertooth would go on after us, but it was common knowledge that we were the main rivals. We had to upstage them, here and now.

We ran out onto the mat as our school name was called. I did my usual scan of the bleachers for parents, and— wait, was that  _Natsu_? I thought everyone would be out supporting Juvia. I thought—

But our music started and I had to shake the racing thoughts from my head. Focus, Lucy. I'd been distracted last week, too, and I couldn't let it mess with my performance this time. We  _would_  beat Sabertooth.

 

After the awards were finished, I ran out to greet him. "Natsu!" He opened his arms and I ran into them, squeezing him around the middle. "You surprised me again. I thought you'd be at Juvia's meet," I said.

"Someone had to come watch you," he said. "You did amazing!"

"I know, right?" I could feel the excitement thrumming in my chest. "You should've seen Minerva's face! She looked so smug last week, but this time we beat them! We beat our rivals! I was worried after last week when we started out behind them, but this should be enough of a boost to keep up our momentum for the rest of competition season."

"Nice job. That was a huge trophy, too!"

"Yeah. It's like half as tall as I am."

"Did you see Levy's texts?"

"No. I haven't been checking my phone. How'd Juvia do?"

"See for yourself," Natsu said, disengaging himself from our comfortable embrace.

He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. There was a photo open from Levy, a selfie of her, Erza, and Gray. The caption read:  _Gajeel's here too, but he's a loser and wouldn't join our picture. Juvia got the best times in backstroke and butterfly! And we won the meet!_

"There's another one, too," he said, swiping to the next one.

There was another photo, this one of Juvia and Gray together. Juvia was in her swimsuit, hair cascading onto her shoulders and swim cap gripped nervously in her hands. Gray was relaxed and smiling, which was good to see after he kept dragging his feet about going to see her in the first place.  _They're adorably awkward_ , was Levy's commentary.

"It's a good day for Fairy Tail High sports," I noted.

"It almost makes up for the fact that the soccer team dropped out of regionals," Natsu said.

"Hey, the fact that you guys qualified in the first place is awesome. You beat Sabertooth for the opportunity. So you can still be proud of that."

"I'm just a little bummed that the season ended so quickly. I wanted it to last longer, and regionals are still going on. It's the semifinals today. The rest of the soccer team is there, besides me and Gray."

"Then I'm even more thankful you two ditched them to see Juvia and me. I'm touched."

He backed up a step. "No you're not. Nobody's touching you, see?"

I rolled my eyes. "Natsu, now's not the time for your terrible dad jokes."

"Then when is the time for my jokes?"

"Never."

"But Lucy," he whined.

"Your jokes are terrible. Mr. Makarov rubbed off on you too much."

He made a face. "I don't wanna be old like Gramps. No thanks."

"Lucy!" Miss Mira was approaching us.

"Congrats on the win," Natsu said to her.

"Thank you. Lucy, we've been looking for you."

"Oh, sorry." I laughed nervously. "I was just saying hi to Natsu to thank him for stopping by again."

"You can chat with your boyfriend later. Come on."

"He's not my—" But I was already being dragged back to where the rest of the squad was so Miss Mira could give us our post-competition speech. I gave Natsu a helpless backward glance as I disappeared from his view.

"He's not my boyfriend," I mumbled as Miss Mira pulled me through the hallways.

"If you say so," she sang, ignoring my attempts to slow us down. I sighed and gave up. Miss Mira was a force of nature, and sometimes it was best to just go with her pace.

 

Another weekend, another group dinner. This time, it was to celebrate both Juvia and I in our respective athletic successes. It was a much smaller affair, or at least it seemed that way with Jellal missing. We'd also made a point of separating Natsu and Gray so they didn't fight, which definitely helped. And once we got food into them, those two were quiet except for the sounds of them eating.

"Natsu  _insisted_  on watching you, Lucy," Levy said, nudging Natsu. She was sitting across from me, Natsu on her right side. On her left was Gajeel, while I was flanked by Gray and Juvia, the latter of whom was sneaking glances at Gray as the former pretended not to notice.

Natsu blushed. "Hey, somebody had to. Everyone else was going to see Juvia."

Erza, sitting at the head of the table by Nastu and Juvia, gave Natsu a hearty pat on the shoulder. "Thanks for representing us at her competition," she said.

Natsu winced under her strong hand. "Thanks," he muttered, still embarrassed.

Gray checked his phone and sat up straight. "Ah."

"What?" I asked.

"I wasn't looking at my phone so I didn't notice. My brother's here to pick me up." Gray had an older half-brother from his mother's previous marriage. Lyon Vastion went to private school, didn't get along well with Gray, and that was all we knew about him. Gray also had a sister he never met born from a third man prior to his mom getting married and adopted out. The whole family was just very complicated. So many half-siblings.

"Juvia wants to meet Gray's brother," Juvia said, clasping her hands together.

"Well, you'll get to," Gray said, though he didn't sound all that enthused. "That's him." He pointed out a tall, scowling man who was walking briskly toward us. His hair was bleached blonde and his facial features looked almost Scandinavian. I didn't want to make assumptions, but while Gray was full Japanese, his brother definitely wasn't.

"Hurry up," Lyon snapped, crossing his arms as he approached Gray. "I do you a favor of picking you up and you make me come all the way in h—" He stopped in his tracks, eyes widened. I followed his gaze to Juvia, who was slowly turning pink. Oh dear.

"I'd have driven myself, but I don't have a car," Gray said, standing up. "I'm going now," he announced to all of us.

"Wait a second," Lyon said, pushing his brother back down into his chair. He noticed everyone staring at the two of them. "Carry on," he said, waving his hand to dismiss us. Conversation awkwardly resumed.

Well, resumed for everyone except for me. I kept my ears tuned to the brothers' whispered conversation next to me.

"Who is she?" Ohhh boy.

"Who's who?"

"That girl! The one between the redhead and the blonde."

"You mean Juvia?"

"That's her name? Juvia?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"She's beautiful. You have to introduce me."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I said no."

"Is she taken or something?"

"No."

"Then why not?"

"You're too old for her."

"You guys are all 16, aren't you? I'm 18. And I'm a senior, so I'm only a grade above."

"The fact that you're an idiot and got held back doesn't concern me."

"If it doesn't concern you, then introduce me!"

Gray stood up, his chair clattering. "I said no!" he shouted. Everyone stopped and looked at him, startled. Gray snatched his coat and stormed out, leaving his bewildered brother staring after him.

"What was that about?" Natsu mumbled, frowning.

"I will have to discipline him later," Erza said.

"Please excuse my brother's rudeness," Lyon said gracefully, his eyes lingering on Juvia. "I don't see why he is in such a hurry to leave such a pretty lady, but I am his ride so I must also be going. We shall make our introductions next time, Miss Juvia." And before Juvia could even open her mouth, he turned on his heel and followed his brother out.

Gajeel whistled. "Well this ought'a be fun."

Juvia was bright red and flustered, fanning her face with her hands. "Juvia does not know what just happened," she said breathlessly, "but Juvia does not dislike it."

I grinned and elbowed her playfully. "How does it feel to have two hot guys fighting over you?"

"Juvia is quite flattered," she said. "But next time Juvia needs to tell Lyon that Juvia doesn't like such formal speech. It sounds too unnatural."

"Better yet, tell Gray to pass the message along," I said.

"Gray would blow his top," Natsu laughed. "If there's one thing I know about that ice cube, it's that he doesn't like to share." And he wasn't wrong. Gray insisted he didn't want a relationship, but he seemed oddly pleased by Juvia's interest in him when he thought nobody was looking. We'd just have to see where their relationship went. For now it was platonic, but if Gray kept this up, he might have to break his vow of singledom.

And if Lyon's insta-crush on Juvia stuck around, Gray would have his half-brother to contend with as well. Lyon picked Gray up from all our gatherings, but he always left before Lyon had to come inside to fetch him so this was the first time we'd actually met him. If Lyon was interested in Juvia, we might get be seeing more of him. And Juvia didn't seem to dislike Lyon's flirting.

 

While the Lyon-Juvia-Gray love triangle was going on, I had my own unlikely meeting to contend with. Daddy almost never got home until 8 or 9 in the evening, but on one particular day, he was home at 6. On a day Natsu happened to have invited himself over.

Natsu and I were on the couch watching TV while we ate — what else? — ramen. I had my portion in a bowl while Natsu ate the rest out of the pot. His appetite was always so much bigger than mine anyways.

I thought I was hallucinating when I heard the keys in the door, but then the front door swung open and there he was, my dad.

Natsu paused and looked up with noodles hanging from his mouth. Daddy stared back.

"You-you're home early," I said. "If I'd known I would've made dinner. And, uhh..." I also wouldn't've let Natsu come over, let alone stay this long. Only Levy and Erza had seen my father before, and this was even more awkward than both those meetings combined.

Natsu put a hand up in greeting as he slurped the noodles into his mouth. "Yo. I'm Natsu."

My dad looked like he was about to have an aneurism. I snerked. As much as I dreaded the upcoming lecture on involving myself with barbaric people like Natsu, I was definitely enjoying this reaction.

"Nice to meet you," Daddy said, his voice straining to remain calm as Natsu shoved more ramen into his mouth. "I am Lucy's father."

"Mn phm mnm mng," Natsu said, mouth full. He swallowed. "Nice to meet you, too," he repeated.

Daddy took a deep breath, in and out. He looked at me. "Lucy, if you need me I'll be in my office."

"Okay," I said.

I watched him go into his bedroom (aka his "office") and close the door with what was nearly a slam. I turned to Natsu. "Way to make a first impression," I said.

"Your dad has a scary face," Natsu said. "Didn't know what to say."

I giggled. "We may have lost our money, but he never lost his snobbishness about manners.  _Especially_  eating etiquette. I'm pretty sure you shocked him." I leaned back into the couch and sighed. "He's gonna have my head tonight."

"Sorry," Natsu said, looking a little embarrassed.

I patted his shoulder. "It's all right. That's what he gets for coming home early without warning me. Did you see his face when he saw you? So funny."

Natsu grinned. "He was pretty shocked," he agreed.

"But, uh...you should probably leave after you're done eating. And I need to get dinner started."

"You just ate."

"Yeah, but I need to eat with my dad, too. He gets mad if I don't join him for meals when he's home."

"That's stupid."

"It's his rule." I stood up. "If you want to keep watching TV, go ahead. I'll be in the kitchen."

"No, I'll come with you," he said, grabbing the remote in one hand and the ramen pot in the other. After turning off the TV, he wordlessly took my bowl as well and went into the kitchen ahead of me to start washing the dishes.

I wanted to protest, but I didn't. The look on his face was familiar; I knew he could tell this unexpected meeting had unnerved me and was trying to make me feel better. "Thanks," I said, resting my forehead on the back of his shoulder for a moment. I could feel his warmth through the t-shirt.

While I wasn't looking forward to the upcoming talk with my dad about the strange boy I'd invited over in his absence, somehow I was glad he'd met Natsu. It was hard to place why, but I was.

Lifting my head, I left Natsu to the dishes (hopefully he would actually do a good job) and set about preparing dinner. I left Natsu with a hug when I sent him home, and suffered through my dad's worrying when we sat down for dinner. All things considered, it could have gone way worse.


	10. Crushes and Chemistry

I had cheer practice today, but I was exhausted. Drained. I needed to see my best friend. Even taking into account our quick conversations in homeroom, it had been way too long since we'd had a proper chat.

I decided to go find Levy in the library. But when I got there, I nearly stopped in my tracks.

"Gajeel?" My voice came out louder than I expected it to. But that was definitely Gajeel. His hair was tied back in a low ponytail, showing off a small tattoo of a gear behind his ear.

"Oh, hey, Lucy," Levy greeted, casual as ever.

I slowly sat down at the table with them. "I didn't know you two became friends."

"Not really," Gajeel muttered.

"You know how my parents own a car repair shop?" Levy said.

I nodded. Though it didn't fit Levy's image, she was actually the daughter of two mechanics.

"And you know how there's a rival shop down the street from ours?"

"Kind of." At least, it wasn't an unfamiliar statement.

"Well, Gajeel's uncle owns that shop."

"The rival one?"

"Yup." Wow. What were the odds?

I smirked. "Keep your enemies close, eh?"

Levy blushed. "Hey, that's business, and this is school. We were talking about cars. That's all."

"Shrimp knows her stuff," Gajeel said, nodding his head in approval.

Well. I hadn't expected these two of all people to get along, but if things were like this, it actually made sense. Levy was a closet motorhead and Gajeel was, well, a motorhead. I almost felt jealous he could bond with her in a way I'd never been able to, with my complete cluelessness about cars.

But at least Levy and I had our literature, which Gajeel was not a fan of, given the awkwardness with which he was regarding the books in front of him.

"Well, I was just stopping by to say hi before I go to practice," I said. I waved on my way out. "Have fun!" Gajeel scowled and Levy blushed, and I, meanwhile, was still not entirely sure what had just happened.

 

Practice went well, and by the end of it I was sweaty and exhausted. All I wanted to do was go home and take a shower and sleep, but I knew I still had homework to do. And I had to start that essay due next week. And Daddy asked me to do the laundry today, couldn't forget that. And—

I was passing through the lobby on my way out of the school, and found myself face-to-face with Natsu coming from another direction. I blinked.

"Hi," I said.

He looked at the ground. "Hi."

"What are you doing here so late?" I asked. Bboying, maybe? Soccer season was over a month ago.

Natsu's face flushed. "Detention," he said sheepishly.

"Detention? What'd you do now?"

"I, uh, had a little too much fun with the Bunsen burner in chem."

I smacked him upside the head. "You idiot! Can't you control your pyro instincts for one second?"

"I did control them," he whined, covering his head with his hands.

"Then how did you get detention?"

"Popsicle dared me to do it."

I sighed. "You and your silly pissing contests with Gray. Will you two ever grow up?"

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Apologize to the classmates you probably endangered with your little pyro habit. Bunsen burners aren't toys. They're dangerous."

"Yeah."

He looked really down from my scolding, so I patted his head lightly. "Well, just be glad nobody got hurt and they only gave you a detention."

"I was just waving it around a bit, nothing that'd get me suspended," he said, sounding a little too pleased with himself. I shot him a look before he could get too proud.

"Anyway, practice just ended so I have to go home and shower. See ya."

"Wait, Lucy!" He grabbed my arm to stop me. "Can I come too?"

I eyed him suspiciously. "Why?"

"Just 'cause. You're always busy so we never get to hang out."

"I'm not gonna have much time to hang out. I have a lot of chores to do."

"I can help," he insisted.

I narrowed my eyes. "You're just using me to avoid going home, aren't you?"

He laughed nervously and put a hand to his neck. "Gramps is real mad about the detention," he said. "Please? I don't wanna die."

"Fine, you can come," I said.

"Yes!"

"But just this once."

"Aye, sir!"

"I take the bus."

He paled a little. "I, uh...that's fine."

"You don't have any dramamine, do you?"

"Wendy gave me some but I used it all up already," he said.

"You're going to build up a tolerance to it if you keep that up," I scolded. "Well, I hope you survive."

Natsu groaned, but he did follow me out of the school and all the way to my bus stop. Seems even his extreme motion sickness wasn't going to keep him from avoiding Mr. Makarov's rage. He did hesitate before stepping on, but he dutifully followed me to a seat. I picked one close to the door to make for an easy escape. It was a good idea, too, because he started to look ill the moment the bus started moving. I didn't know how he did it; who got motion sick so quickly? Well, apparently Natsu did. It was comical, really.

By the time it was my stop, he was looking really green.

"You sure you're gonna be okay?" I asked, half holding him up as we walked down the street to my apartment.

"This is why I usually jog here. That and it's good exercise. Coach loves it when I exercise outside of practice."

"I can't go back with you," I said.

"I know," he grumbled.

I patted him roughly on the back. "Well, good luck!"

"Urgh," he moaned, doubling over. "Don't do that, Lucy."

"Sorry, sorry."

"Why does your apartment have to be so far from the bus stop?"

"It's only a block, Natsu."

"Still too far," he insisted.

Back at the apartment, I let him lie on my bed to recover from his nausea. I stood over him, hands on my hips. I'd let him come over here, but I still felt sweaty and gross. He still looked sick, but now that he was lying down I could probably leave him alone for a little while as I washed the filth from my body.

"I'm going to take a shower," I announced.

"Don't leave me," he whined.

But I ignored him, scooping up a towel and change of clothes. "I just got back from practice, so I need to shower. Unless you'd rather I be sweaty and gross the entire time you're here."

He grinned. "You can be gross and sweaty when I'm here; I don't mind."

"No." With that, I left him behind.

He couldn't just  _smile_  like that. It wasn't good for my heart. Especially when he was lying on my bed. Especially when it was accompanied by him telling me I could be sweaty with him. Yes, it held an entirely different meaning from what he meant, but I couldn't get my mind out of the gutter.

"Get a grip, Lucy," I muttered to myself as I hung the towel on the rack. Now was not the time for that.

After my shower, I wrapped my hair in a towel and returned to my room to find Natsu still lying on the bed. He was alert now, eyes wide and hyper.

"Hey, I was wondering something," he said.

I let my hair down and started drying it with the towel. "What is it?"

"Why'd you get into cheerleading?"

"It's ladylike," I answered immediately.

Natsu cocked his head. "It is?"

I laughed at his confusion. "To my dad, it is. I really wanted to do lacrosse, but he didn't want me getting dirty all the time. I already did gymnastics as a kid, but I didn't want to do it competitively, so I'd quit a few years before I wanted to start doing sports. Cheerleading uses a lot of gymnastics, so it seemed like a logical choice, and my dad didn't mind it. Of course, in the end I still do competitive stuff, but it's better than nothing."

"Getting dirty is fun," Natsu said.

"I know. But I wasn't raised that way. My dad crushed any attempts at turning into a tomboy."

"But you like it now, right?"

"Cheerleading? Yup. I love it."

"Gramps pretty much lets me do anything. Dad was like that, too." His eyes got softer as he mentioned his adoptive father.

"What were you like as a kid?" I asked. I'd heard all about Wendy's awkward tween years (much to her chagrine), but we'd never had any childhood talk about ourselves. But then again, maybe it was for the best; Natsu's face became wistful at my question, fond and a little sad.

"I was a handful," he said.

"I can imagine," I said, joining him as he laughed a little.

"I couldn't sit still in school, so in the end Dad just decided to homeschool me."

"That bad, huh?"

"Hey, I turned out all right in the end."

"Props to your dad for that."

"Yeah. I...I toned it down a little after Dad disappeared. But then Mr. Makarov took me in, and he's a teacher, so he was having none of the misbehavior  _or_  the moping. So now I sit still in school."

"Depends on how you define 'sitting still in school,'" I said, sending him a smirk.

"I'm a good student," he insisted. "We just don't have any classes together so you don't see it."

"Honestly, I might be a little weirded out if I had a class with you and you actually sat through it like a regular student. You're kind of infamous as a class clown. Before we met, that's how I knew of you. The weird hyper kid with the pink hair." I laughed and he scowled.

"I'm not  _that_  hyper." He leaned back and sighed. "You know, it'll be seven years this summer."

"Seven years?"

"Since Dad went missing."

"Oh."

"It's easy for me to remember the date, too. 7th day of the 7th month. July 7."

"Same day Mom died," I muttered.

That surprised him. "Really?"

"Yeah." I laughed dryly. "Wonderful coincidence, right? We both lost a parent on the same day of the same year."

"Your mom was seven years ago, too?"

I nodded.

"Wow. This is weird."

"It'll be a fun day for both of us, I guess," I sighed, sitting down on my bedroom floor. He crawled down from the bed, sitting cross-legged across from me. Reaching his hands out, he took mine in his and squeezed them.

"We have each other now. How about this? You're gonna visit your mom on her death anniversary, right?"

I nodded.

"Then I— Wait, maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this."

"Just say it, Natsu."

"Could...uhh...could I maybe come with you? I just end up sitting at home all day feeling glum about everything so I thought maybe it'd be nice to have company and...yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

I blinked. Was...how was I supposed to respond to this? "I...I don't know, I..."

Back before the bank got bought out and he lost his job, Daddy used to have all his employees come to the cemetery and he would make a speech. But in recent years, it was only me. Daddy didn't visit Mom's grave with me anymore, even on her birthday. I suspected he did visit in secret on his own, but on her death anniversary, and even on her birthday a week later, I could spend the whole day kneeling in front of mom's headstone and he'd never show. It was lonely. It made the whole day sadder. Mom loved being around people, which was why I never minded that Daddy turned the day into an office gathering, but when I was the only one to pay respects, it just seemed wrong.

"Yes," I finally said, making up my mind. "Let's do that. It's only ever me on that day, and I could use the company too."

He smiled. "It's not until half a year from now, but I promise I won't forget!"

"You better not," I teased.

"And when they find Dad, you can meet him, too! Well, I guess it's more like I want  _him_  to meet  _you_. He'd want to know who all my friends are. Especially the important ones." He was looking at me with those darn eyes of his, and I tried to pretend I wasn't reading anything into it.  _He doesn't mean anything by it_ , I reminded myself.  _He doesn't mean anything by it._

I withdrew my hands from his, slowly. "A-anyway, speaking of parents, does Mr. Makarov know you're here?"

Natsu shivered. "Don't talk about Gramps. He might show up if you say his name."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so dramatic. He's probably worried that you haven't come home yet. Just let him know you're here so he doesn't send a search squad out for you."

"He probably knows I'm here anyway. Where else would I be?" Natsu mumbled, though he dutifully got out his phone to text his foster father. "Hey, is your dad coming home today?"

"No," I answered, a little confused about why he was even asking. Daddy always worked late. Natsu of all people should know that well, given how often he invited himself over here. That one time had been a fluke.

"Good." He got a mischievous look on his face. "Let's watch a scary movie."

I eyed him warily. "Natsu, Halloween was ages ago."

"But scary movies are fun."

"You know I don't like them."

"But it'll be fun. Come on, please?"

"Even if I liked them, my dad doesn't let anything over PG-13 into the apartment."

"That's what Netflix is for."

"I dunno, Natsu..."

"Come on. Your dad doesn't have to know. After you told me you've never watched a horror movie, now I  _have_  to get you to experience it once. The adrenaline rushes when you watch them at home at night are amazing. And I'm here, so I can defend you from anything scary."

"I..." You know what? Why not? I was feeling rebellious. "Okay. Let's do it."

"Yes!" he cheered. "There's this movie I really wanted to watch and—"

"So  _that's_  what this is about."

"And because you've never watched a horror movie before!"

"Okay, okay, I get it. You find the movie and I'll find the stuff to hook it up to the TV. If this goes wrong and I have nightmares for weeks, I'm blaming you."

But Natsu wasn't listening, too busy looking up the movie on my laptop even without me telling him to. "I'm all fired up! This is gonna be awesome."

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes and went out to the living room to get the TV ready. It was going to be an interesting night.

In the end, I did regret it a little, because the nightmares that night were no joke. I had to sleep with a light on because the shadows were freaking me out that much. But Natsu and I did get to cling to each other throughout the whole movie (me in terror, him in terrified glee) so it was worth it if only for the copious amounts of cuddling. And if it was Natsu asking, I might even watch a movie like that again. Maybe. Probably not. Too scary.


	11. Hands and Heartbeats

"Levyyyy." She was reading in the library, and I was anoying her so I didn't have to go to the student council meeting. They could deal with me being a few minutes late so I could talk to my bestie.

"What?"

"Two days from now. Saturday."

"Yes?"

"I have a day off."

"Wait, no practice?"

I nodded my head. "No practice. We get the weekend off. No competition, no practice. No cheerleading at all. I have the whole weekend to do whatever I want."

"Like homework."

"Like homework," I agreed. Teachers always loved to pile on the homework and essays before winter break, which was also coming up soon. "But I was thinking maybe we could hang out. I always have chores on Sunday, and we still have practice on Friday as usual. So. Are you free to hang out on Saturday evening?"

Levy had looked excited before, but she quickly deflated. "Ah, no, I can't do Saturday evening," Levy said. "I'm going to a concert with Gajeel that day."

"You're  _what_?"

She laughed. "He may not look the type, but he's actually really into jazz. He said if I watched a live show I'd like it too, so he invited me this weekend."

"Wow, I…okay." More surprises from Levy and Gajeel. I should've been expecting it by now.

"You can come too if you want," she said offhand, looking at her twiddling fingers.

"I'll pass," I said, smiling. "I wouldn't want to interrupt your date."

She didn't look up or change expression, but her face turned extremely red. So it  _was_  a date. If it wasn't, she'd have protested as loudly as I always did when she teased me about Natsu. But here she was, blushing.

"Ahh, you're so cute!" I squealed, crushing her in a hug.

"Not this again," she groaned. "And shush, we're in a library."

"How do Jet and Droy feel about your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend," Levy snapped. "It's just one date. And, uh, they felt a little left out, I guess, but they both supported me."

"How noble of them."

"I wouldn't be friends with them if they didn't respect me. You know that, Lu."

"True enough."

Everyone knew that both of her friends had crushes on her to some extent. They could get a little extreme sometimes, but it was good to know they were decent human beings after all.

"Well, I'll just have to ask around some more. Maybe Erza or Juvia is free."

"I'm really sorry, Lu. I'd totally cancel, but he already bought the tickets. We'll be able to hang out over break."

"Yeah, it's fine. It's not every day that you get a date with Gajeel Redfox."

Levy blushed again. "It's not every day that I get a date at all," she said.

"And yet here you are, with a date. When did he ask you?"

"It was two days ago. I was going to tell you as soon as it happened, but..." She hid her face in her hands. "Ahh, what do I do, Lu? It's so embarrassing to talk about!"

"If you're this embarrassed already, what are you going to do on the actual date day?"

She looked up at me suddenly, eyes wide. "I don't know," she deadpanned.

I burst out in laughter. "I'll help you. Not that my dating history is much to brag about, but I can help you get ready."

"Would you really?"

"Yeah, why not? I can just invite people over in the evening, and spend the pre-date part of your afternoon with you."

She exhaled. "You're a lifesaver, Lu. You're so much better at picking out outfits than I am."

I gave her a thumbs-up. "Just leave it to me. If you want a second date, I'll have it so he's absolutely  _begging_  you. And if not, then at least you'll look fabulous when you kick him to the curb."

Levy giggled. "Just don't get too carried away."

"Don't worry, I know your style."

"Fashionable friends are the best kind of friends to have," Levy said, grinning at me.

"Ah, I knew there was a reason you kept me around. I see how it is now."

"Lucyyyy."

I laughed. "What time's the date?"

"Umm, he's picking me up at 7. We're having dinner at the place."

"Oo, he's even picking you up. Nice. I was worried, since it's Gajeel, but it looks like he's got some basic dating etiquette down."

"Lucy..."

"Okay, okay, I won't tease. I'll come over at 5 then. Is that okay?"

"Sure! That gives us plenty of time to hang out before I have to start getting ready."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Yay! Pre-date playdate!"

I laughed. "You have a busy day on Saturday, Levy."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

 

Saturday. Levy's apartment. The TV blared some trashy reality show as I curled Levy's hair. Her hair was always naturally curly, but it was my job now to tame the usual frizz and make the curls shiny and stylish. The wild mess was about to be tamed into a fluffy mound of hair.

I put down the curling iron. "There. Done."

Levy turned her head this way and that, watching in the mirror as the curls bounced. "They look natural. You're amazing, Lu. Why can't they always look like this?"

I flipped my hair. "It's because I'm an expert." I laughed. "Let's just get this headband on you and see how you look."

Levy was wearing an abstract patterned dress with hints of red in the pattern, so I'd picked out a headband to match that. I let her tie it in her hair — she was the expert in headbands, after all, since she wore them every day — and then pushed her in front of the mirror. She twirled, letting the dress fan out around her.

"I feel so pretty," she gushed, twisting her legs to show off her red stockings. "I forgot I even had these."

"When you take off your coat at the restaurant, he's not going to be able to take his eyes off you."

"He's not going to think I'm trying too hard, is he?"

I dismissed her concern. "You always look this cute," I assured her. "I didn't dress you too differently from how you usually look. You're just a  _little_  more color-coordinated, and your hair is a  _little_  more tame than usual. That's all."

"I dunno, Lu, it sure feels like a magical transformation to me."

"No turning back now," I said. "But I do promise you're fine." I glanced out the window. Levy's room overlooked the street, so I could keep track of when Gajeel showed up even before he texted her that he'd arrived. And it looked like I had great timing, because a car pulled up just as a kid with pink hair ran by, disappearing out of my vision where the windowsill blocked my view of the sidewalk.

"Is he here?" Levy asked, noticing I hadn't moved from the window as quickly as usual.

"I think so," I said. I didn't tell her about Natsu. But that rusty gray truck was most likely Gajeel's.

Sure enough, moments later Levy's phone alerted her to Gajeel's arrival text. We went downstairs together, and I hung back in the lobby so Levy could greet Gajeel alone. She was smiling as she hopped into his truck, talking animatedly as Gajeel listened. And he actually  _smiled_  a little. Now matter how often I wondered how a bookworm like Levy and a delinquent like Gajeel could ever work out, the two of them went and changed my mind right back again.

Once the truck pulled away, I finally stepped outside into the cold air. It was frigid, the late autumn chill already well upon us. I stuck my hands into my coat pockets and shivered.

"Natsu."

Nothing but the sounds of the streets.

I repeated it louder. "Natsu!"

He slowly emerged from behind the neighboring building's staircase. "How'd you know I was here?" he asked, joining me on the sidewalk.

"Your hair is hard to miss," I pointed out. I reached to to twist a lock between my fingertips. "Speaking of which, I think it's time for you to re-dye it. It's getting faded."

He also reached up to play with his hair. "Yeah, you're right. My roots are getting really bad, too. There's almost more black than pink."

"Have you ever thought of dying it a different color?"

"Not really," he said with a shrug. "Why, is the pink bad?"

"No. It's very...distinctive. It suits you, somehow. You make it work."

He laughed. "Good to know. I always kind of wondered what you thought about it."

"Honestly, I wish I were as confident as you. I always just dye mine boring blonde."

"But you look good blonde."

I shied at the compliment. "Thanks."

"So," he said, looking at at the street. "Levy and Gajeel, huh?"

"I was pretty surprised myself," I admitted. "I should've been expecting it, after they kept hanging out in the library."

"Wait. Gajeel? In the library?"

"Surprising, right?"

Natsu crossed his arms and shook his head. "He must really like her. Gajeel hates reading."

I laughed. "They'll make an interesting pair, then. Oh, I never did ask. Are you free?"

"When? Now?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, making sure Gajeel didn't mess this up was the only thing I had to do today."

"Then do you want to come over?"

His face lit up, as expected. "Can I?"

"No practice today. I already asked the other girls, and they were busy too."

He pouted. "Why didn't you ask me?"

"Didn't think of it," I said with a shrug.

That was a lie. I had thought of it. A lot. Even before I had confirmed that a girls' gathering was out of the question, I'd wondered if maybe I could invite Natsu. Though he sometimes showed up unannounced anyways, we'd made no plans to meet this weekend. And honestly, I was kind of afraid to make those plans. Now that I had a certain idea stuck in my mind, being around him was making me awfully nervous.

But despite that fear, there was something positive. This right here was my chance, maybe.

I hooked my arm in his to drag him along. "Come on, let's go."

"There's no buses, right?" he asked hesitantly, letting me pull him down the sidewalk.

"Of course not. I'm only a few blocks away, remember?"

He thought a moment, then grinned. "You're right! I was worried for a moment there. Gajeel made me drive over with him, and I did take medicine, but I'd rather not be in a vehicle again for a little while."

"He even drove you over?"

"He dropped me off around the corner and had me hide and watch after he parked in front of Levy's apartment. I was supposed to wave my hands wildly if he started saying something wrong."

"Poor Gajeel. What's he gonna do for the rest of their date?"

"I don't know. Hopefully not mess it up," Natsu said.

At my apartment, I ran inside while Natsu was still slipping his shoes off at the door. "Snacks?" I called from the kitchen.

"Do you still have those hot tortilla chips?"

I plucked them out of the snack cabinet. "Yup! Saved them just for you. Daddy isn't allowed to touch them."

"Awesome."

"Let's go in my room," I said, emerging into the living room where Natsu had already found himself a seat on the couch.

"No TV?"

"No TV. Levy and I were watching stuff as I helped her get ready. I'm done with TV for the day."

"Aww."

"How about we listen to music instead?"

He jumped to his feet. "Can we listen to the Dragon Slayers?"

I laughed. "I knew you'd say that." Natsu's favorite band had just come out with a new album last week, and he couldn't seem to go two hours without mentioning it. He was  _that_  pumped over it.

"So is that a yes?"

"Do I even have the option to say no?"

"Awesome!" Natsu shouted, doing a full-body fist pump that involved some jumping, and ran into my room. He knew my computer password, so my laptop was open and playing the Dragon Slayers' new album before I even entered my room with the chips.

"You didn't waste a second starting the music, did you?" I mused. I tossed him the chips in my hand. "Here. Take these too."

"You're the best," he said, not even looking at me as he tore the bag open and began shoving handfuls of chips into his mouth.

I scowled as his messiness. "Don't get crumbs everywhere," I warned him. I collapsed backward onto my bed with a long sigh. "Whose house is this anyway? It feels like you own the place when you're around."

"Aww, don't be like that, Luce," he said, mouth full of chips so it came out more like a mumble. "The only reason I'm here all the time is because you're here. It's not like I come for the food or anything."

"Liar," I said, smirking at him.

"Not a lie," he insisted. "It's the truth." His words were still muffled by the chips, and I struggled to hold back the giggles. He seriously looked like a chipmunk with his mouth that full.

I flipped myself upright. "I'm going to write," I said. "You can do whatever."

He jumped up. "I'm going to sing!" he announced.

This could only end badly. But I acquiesced. "Go ahead. Just try not to disturb the neighbors, okay?"

"Aye, sir!"

 

It was getting late by the time the music was over. It was a two-disc album, and Natsu had sung wildly to the entire thing. It was a new album, so he had maybe two choruses memorized and that's it. The rest was just garbled gibberish sung to a tune approximately similar to the songs. It would've been annoying if it weren't so damn funny.

"You done?" I asked when the music stopped.

"Yep. That's the end."

I applauded. "And no noise complaints from the neighbors! Congrats!"

Natsu pouted. "Lucy's a meanie."

"Pretty sure you're meaner for making me sit through that." Please react, please react, please react.

Natsu did react. He spread his feet and took up a fighting stance. A sneer faced in my direction. "You wanna go?" he threatened.

"Go where?"

That threw him off. It took a moment for him to recollect himself. "I mean do you wanna  _fight?"_

"Nah."

"Why not?"

Oh. My opportunity came sooner than I thought. My idea, the one that had been stuck in my head for a week, the one that I was finally about to release from my system: "Because I like you."

That  _really_  threw him off. His hands dropped to his sides, startled out of his stance. "What?"

"I said that I like you," I repeated, my face burning. "I really, really like you."

I couldn't look him in the eye. I couldn't believe I was actually confessing. I'd been thinking about it for ages, troubled by the fact that he was still clueless about my mad crush. And here I was, letting him know. But I wasn't sure I was ready to face him now; what would be his reaction?

Apparently, his reaction would be frustration. He crouched down with his hands over his head. "Argh, why didn't you tell me?"

"Wh-what?"

He mumbled, "I've had a crush on you for months."

My face felt like it was on fire. Had I heard that right? "You...m...m-months?"

He kept his gaze turned to the side so I couldn't see his expression. "Okay, I don't know, it's hard to actually figure out when it started. But like…how quickly you became my best friend…how quickly you became an important person to me…" He looked up at me with wide eyes. "It's not normal, Luce."

I walked over and squatted next to him. "We did become friends pretty fast, huh? We must be soulmates or something. In a friend way, at least."

"Do you think we could be soulmates other ways, too?"

Even more than him returning my feelings, I never though I'd hear these kinds of things from Natsu Dragneel of all people. It's not that he was particularly obtuse to such subjects — in fact, he was quite straightforward — but I never expected him to be so…smooth.

He grinned. "Lucy, you're blushing."

"Like you're one to talk," I grumbled, shoving him.

He grinned and laughed, and we were back to normal again, for a moment.

But only for a moment, because what followed his laughter was silence. Not the comfortable kind I usually had with Natsu, but a fidgety, awkward silence.

"So, uhh…what now?" he finally asked.

"I don't know," I said. "I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to…say it." I was blushing again.

"Does this mean that we're…?"

"I guess so…?"

"Yes!" He squealed, falling over onto his side. "Ahh, so happy."

I giggled. He was acting so cute I could hardly stand it.

He reached over and took my hand. He held my fingers lightly in his, his thumb resting on top and stroking them with a gentle touch. I scooted closer and tightened my grip on his hand. My stomach was already swimming with butterflies at his positive response to my confession, but with this I felt like my heart would burst.

"Natsu…"

He smirked. "Don't worry, I already know your turn-ons and turn-offs."

I scowled at him, suddenly sobered. "Is that was this is?"

"You said you like holding hands and light touches. It seems you weren't lying."

"You sly bastard."

"I pay attention more to you than you think," he said. He was pouting now.

"I never doubted you," I said. "It's just…I guess this is all just so unexpected and I—"

The sound of a key in the front door stopped me short. Daddy was home.

I looked at Natsu. This was the worst timing ever. We still need to talk things out. We still needed to—

Natsu stood up and tugged on my hand to pull me up with him. "We can talk more later," he said. "I'll call you."

"I was about to say that," I said, slowly smiling.

"Lucy? You home?" my dad called.

"In my room," I shouted back. "Natsu's here."

He stood in the doorway. "Hello, Natsu. So you're here again."

Natsu released his grip on my hand, and I let my arm drop to my side. "I was actually about to leave, sir," he said. He turned to me. "See you in school."

"Bye," I said. I showed him to the door and gave a small wave as he left.

"He's been here a lot," Daddy remarked.

"Yeah." I was definitely blushing. "We, uhh…we may be dating now?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why does that sound like a question?"

"Because it literally just happened before you walked in."

"Oh." He shrugged and headed to his room. "I'll have to give him a good talking-to next time he's here."

"Daddy, please don't."

He looked at me. "I'm a parent. And your mother isn't here to do it, so it's even more important."

I sighed. "Fine. I'm going back to my room." I escaped back to the comfort of my closed bedroom door. Talking about it was just  _so embarrassing_. How in the world was I supposed to go public with my affection for Natsu? It made me want to crawl in a hole just thinking about it.

I flopped down onto my bed and screamed into a pillow.

"I should tell everyone," I thought aloud. No matter how embarrassing, my friends deserved to hear it from me first.

I'd call Levy first. She'd been dealing with most of my agonizing over Natsu these days, and I also needed to hear about her date with Gajeel. Then Juvia. The conversation with Erza would go last; she'd probably interrogate me for the longest.

And then Natsu would be calling me later.

I squealed into my pillow again. This was too much. I was so happy. So happy.

 

That night, I spent almost an hour talking to my friends. Gajeel and Levy weren't actually  _dating_ , but they both agreed there was definitely something there. Even though Gajeel wasn't committing, the mutual interest was enough for Levy to give it a shot. Juvia spent about five minutes straight gushing about how cute we were before I had to end the call. I loved her, but the romance talk was so embarrassing when it was about me. And then Erza spent about two seconds congratulating me before launching into the expected interrogation. I should've told my dad I didn't need his concern when I had Erza acting as a second mom, and a much better one than him anyway.

After an hour talking to my friends, I spent another hour with Natsu. We actually talked about nothing in particular. Schoolwork, Levy and Gajeel, we even debated whether Erza was stronger than Mr. Strauss. But by the time the call was over and I went to sleep, I felt secure and happy with where we were. We were dating. We liked each other. A lot. The rest we could figure out together along the way.

Things were in uproar at school for a while. Our friends wouldn't stop teasing us. The cheer girls were the same, making all sorts of innuendos that I did my best to brush off. Mr. Makarov made a point of saying hi to me in the hallways every day, and loudly. I got used to it after a while, but the first week or so was absolutely mortifying. Thankfully, winter break was right around the corner so people forgot about it after that.

We didn't spend much time together over winter break; school might not be in session, but cheerleading sure was. And Natsu's family was going away on vacation for the holidays. So instead of getting to spend time together during our time off, we ended up relying on text messages and phone calls. It was a little lonely, but when we finally saw each other again on the first day of the new semester, none of that mattered anymore.

And then, as our relationship gradually became a normal thing at school, the firsts started happening:

Our first sort-of-date, where Mr. Makarov took Natsu, Wendy, and I to go skiing. Natsu wanted to snowboard, and somehow managed to get motion sickness from it. Yes, he got motion sickness from  _snowboarding_. I wasn't a huge fan of skiing anyway, so I spent the second half of our day trip hanging out in the lodge and drinking hot cocoa with Natsu at my side. All in all, not bad for a first sort-of-date, motion sickness notwithstanding.

In the spring, our first kiss, surrounded by flowers and cherry blossoms in the park. It was awkward and clumsy and there were dozens of other couples around us, but somehow it felt like we were the only ones there, and it was amazing.

On our next date at the movies, as soon as the lights went down, Natsu treated me to a long, gentle kiss as the previews rolled. It was remarkably difficult to focus on the movie afterwards, especially when he kept brushing his lips against the back of my hand held in his. I didn't know where he learned these things, but I was dying of wanting to kiss him senseless.

Our first big fight was my fault. It was over something stupid. I say it was my fault, but Natsu's straightforward nature was his undoing sometimes, and this was one of those times. I was already having an awful day, but when he told me I  _looked_  awful, I snapped. There was a lot of yelling, and in the end we both had to apologize for our words. But once it was all over, I just took it as proof that we could talk things out when things went wrong. And seeing him so nervous and out of his element giving me flowers with his apology was kinda cute.

And then at the end of the summer, right before the start of our senior year, everything began happening at once.


	12. Moves and Murders

It all started when my father sat me down for a talk.

"The company is closing," he said.

It took me a full minute to let that information absorb. "What?!"

He sighed. "They're moving all work to the Hargeon location next month, and they've requested I transfer. I'll even get a raise." He paused. "It's your senior year so I don't want to uproot you, but if I can't find another job in Magnolia before the closure, we may have to move."

The first thing I did was call Levy.

I started speaking the moment she picked up. "Levy? Levy, I might be moving."

She must've heard the trembling in my voice, because she said, "Lu? Where are you? Are you home?"

I nodded before realizing she couldn't see me. "Yeah."

"I'm taking the bus over. Don't move."

I didn't budge an inch until I heard her at the door. Only then did I get up to let her in.

As soon as the door opened, she tackled me in a tight hug.

"Where's your dad?" she said.

"He went to work after telling me."

"Right, it's a weekday. Wanna talk about it?"

I nodded.

We went back to my room. It was a mess. I was a neat freak during the school year, but the summer heat always made me lazy. But now, I wished my room was just a little bit cleaner. One less piece of chaos in my morning.

I repeated what my father had said, and she just nodded and listened, letting me talk out all my worries and fears. At one point, she started holding my hand, providing me a firm but reassuring touch. And when I was done talking, she wrapped me in a hug.

"You know we love you, Lu," she said. "Even if you have to move, we'll still be your friends. Long-distance friendships can be tough for some people, but if it's you, I think everyone would agree we can make it work."

I curled my knees to my chin. "I just…you know how I didn't have friends when I went to private school. Coming to Fairy Tail High was when I really came out of my shell and made my first friends. I don't want to leave it behind. Not so suddenly, not like this."

"Let's just take this one step at a time, okay? There's still a chance you can stay. The company doesn't close for another month, right? We have a whole month to think things through. Just breathe. You'll be okay."

"I know that, Levy," I said. "I know that, but it doesn't make it feel any better."

She smiled sadly. "I know. I just wanted to say it. To show my support, or something like that…"

"Thanks."

"Did you tell Natsu yet?"

I shook my head. "Only you. Like I said, this literally  _just_  happened. You were the first one I called."

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but on my way over I texted Erza and Juvia telling them to be on standby in case you needed them. I didn't give them specifics, just that something happened and that it wasn't Natsu. So Erza wouldn't try to kill him." We both laughed. "They're both free today too, so if you want to tell them, I'm sure they're both worried right now."

"Yeah, tell them to come over, too," I said. "I'll tell Natsu later after I've talked it out with you guys."

"Good idea. You know how Erza always says, 'sisters before misters.'"

"Anyone before misters, honestly," I said.

Levy smirked. "Don't let Natsu hear you say that."

"Oh, he already has," I said, waving off her tease. "He has the sense not to take things like that personally."

"He's a keeper," Levy confirmed.

"How about Gajeel? I haven't heard about him in a while."

She shrugged. "No news is good news?"

"Don't hold back just because I had something happen today."

"It's nothing," she insisted. I could tell there was something by the uncomfortable expression on her features, but if she didn't want to talk about it, she was probably just waiting to work it out on her own.

"Let's call Juvia and Erza over," I said, reaching for my phone.

"Yup."

They came not too long after. I talked to them too, but it soon evolved into a typical hang-out. I think they were trying to keep me from getting too preoccupied and stressed about my possible move.

But then a call came.

"Lucy, your phone is ringing," Erza said.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear it." I stretched my body over the armrest of the couch to grab it. My hand froze when I saw the caller.

"Who is it?" Juvia asked.

I pulled back to sit straight. My thumb hovered over the green button. "It's Natsu."

"Better pick it up," Erza said.

I scrambled to my feet and headed toward my room. "Sorry, guys."

"We'll be out here if you need us," Levy said, turning on the TV.

When the door was closed behind me, I answered the phone.

"Hey, Natsu. What's up?"

"Lucy. I have some news for you."

My heart rate picked up. He didn't sound so good. "What is it?"

"I wanted to tell you in person, but…I don't know. I don't think I can show my face right now."

Okay, this was  _really_  bad. He didn't know about my move yet, did he? It didn't sound like that's what this was about. But what could have him so upset? He didn't get like this easily.

"Lucy."

"Yeah?"

"They found my dad."

My breath caught in my throat. I suddenly felt cold.

"He's dead, Lucy. Lucy, he's dead." His voice cracked.

My heart was breaking for him. He'd held onto hope all this time, for this.

"Natsu, I'm so sorry," I said. I didn't want to sound pitying, but…what else could I say to something like that? "Are you okay?"

"What do you think?"

"Okay, stupid question. What about the others?"

"My dad's the only one they found, so far. But it doesn't look good. Wendy's not doing so great either right now."

"I'm so, so sorry, Natsu. That's really horrible. Let me know if you need a shoulder."

"Yeah. Sorry, Luce."

"It's fine. I'm sorry, too. Now might be a bad time, but…Natsu, I had something to tell you today, too. I was actually about to call you."

"Great." Even with the sarcasm, his voice cracked again.

"Look, I don't want to keep it from you just because you have more important stuff going on. It wouldn't be fair to you. But my dad talked to me this morning, and, uh. We might be moving."

There was a short stunned silence. " _Moving?_ "

"Levy, Juvia, and Erza are here right now. I told them first, but I was going to call you later and ask to talk, and…nothing's certain, my dad might still get a job in Magnolia, but if he can't, then I'll have to go with him to Hargeon."

"Hargeon," he said. "That's so far away."

"I know."

He let out a long breath.

"I wanted to tell you in person, too, but things turned out like this…"

"It's okay," he said. "We'll be okay."

But he didn't sound convinced, and that realization was painful. He wasn't okay. I could tell. But I knew him well enough not to push the subject. Not now, not over the phone like this.

"Do you want to come over and talk?" I said. "Or I can go to you."

"No," he said. "Don't."

Another pain. "Okay. Just don't bottle everything up, okay? We're all here for you."

"Yeah. You can tell the others about my dad, by the way. I…I thought you should know first, but now I think I don't have the energy to tell anyone else for a while…"

"If that's what you want, then okay. Cry it all out, all right?"

He laughed a little and sniffled. "Of course you knew."

"You're kind of easy to read."

"Yeah, I know."

"Call again if you change your mind."

"You don't cry too much either."

"I already cried a lot with Levy. Maybe I'll cry some more after the others leave. I— I'm really sorry about your dad, Natsu. I was looking forward to meeting him, too. But doesn't this mean they're one step closer to finding out who did this?"

"I—" His voice cracked. He cleared his throat. "I hope so."

"Don't lose your voice," I giggled. "I'm hanging up now. Have strength."

"You too."

I had to take a few moments before I went back out to the others. This whole day was becoming too much. First I might be moving, then something's up with Levy and Gajeel, and now Natsu's father. My head felt like it was about to explode.

When I finally did emerge from my room, all three of my friends were staring at me.

"Woah, Lu, you don't look so good," Levy said.

"What did Natsu say?" Juvia asked.

I sat down and sighed. "It's a tough day for everyone, it seems," I said.

"So you told him?" Levy said.

I nodded. "Yeah. But before I could do that, he had some news of his own." I paused. "They found Natsu's father."

Shouts of surprise.

"They did?" Levy exclaimed.

"I take it it wasn't good news," Erza said.

"It's not. He's dead."

This time, silence.

Levy was the one to break it. "Oh, no, Lu. Oh, no. Oh, no."

"Natsu was so looking forward to finding his father," Erza said. "He had so much hope. Just from the way Natsu talked about him, I couldn't wait to meet him, too."

"I told Natsu the same thing," I said.

"Then Wendy's and Gajeel's parents…?" Juvia said. According to Levy, Gajeel was raised by his aunt and uncle at the shop, and that's actually how he and Natsu got to know each other — their parents were both suspected to have been victimized by the same person.

"They don't know. But it doesn't look good, obviously. It's been seven years. They finally found one of the victims, but he's dead."

"Did he die recently or was he dead all this time?" Erza asked.

I frowned. "I don't know. I didn't ask, and Natsu didn't say."

"We need to be there for him," Erza said. She moved to stand up, but I grabbed her to hold her in place.

"He needs to be alone right now," I said, firmly.

She hesitated, but didn't resist my hold on her. Giving a resigned sigh, she relaxed back into her seat. "If that's what you think is best," she said.

"Don't worry, I already told him that we're all here for him when he needs us. He just…he just needs some space right now." I didn't think he'd want them to see his tears. Kind of like these girls were the only ones to see mine.

Erza cleared her throat, drawing attention to herself. "While we're all having terrible days, I might as well mention that I confessed to Jellal and got rejected."

The shock was collective. " _What_?"

Erza chuckled. "Yeah, I was surprised, too. I thought it was mutual, and when I confessed, we almost kissed. But then he pulled back at the last second and said he was in love with someone else."

"That's bullshit!" Levy blurted. "He doesn't treat any other girls like he treats you. He even holds your hand. He's been acting like a boyfriend for weeks. How dare he?"

"Did he say who it was?" I asked.

"No," Erza said. "Truthfully, I doubt such a person exists. I think he just panicked. Unsurprisingly, the guy's got the self-confidence of a peanut."

"Juvia will go beat him up for Erza," Juvia said, pounding a fist into her palm.

"I'll get my own retribution without violence," Erza said. "If he's going to lie to me like that, it's clear he doesn't respect my feelings. For now at least, I'm cutting him off and giving myself some space. Anything more is unnecessary. But thanks, Juvia."

Juvia wrapped her arms around herself. "Juvia's friends all seemed to be happily in love so Juvia wanted to confess to Gray, but now it seems like this week is cursed."

"It's best to wait until next week," I agreed. Also, I still wasn't so sure that Gray reciprocated Juvia's feelings. It was possible, but other than when Lyon was around, when did he really pay any attention to her?

Argh, our love lives were all in shambles. Well, my conversation with Natsu had gone fairly well, but I couldn't help but feel that it was the calm before the storm.


	13. Worries and Waiting

I tried to give him his space, I really did. But a week went by and Natsu wasn't answering my texts or anything. I had to see him at least once more before classes started next week. I didn't know why, I just had to. So I took the bus across town to that familiar little house near the school.

It was Mr. Makarov who answered the door.

"Come in," he said. By the look on his face, he seemed to know why I was here. "Natsu is in the backyard."

I went to the back door and found Natsu squatting in the grass of their tiny yard, tossing chips into a fire pit one at a time and watching them flare up. His expression was unusually vacant. Pinch, toss, repeat. It was if all energy had been drained from his body. And perhaps it had.

I silently walked over and sat cross-legged beside him, laying the skirt of my dress over the gap between my legs.

He looked up slowly, eyes widening in surprise. "Lucy," he said.

"You're not answering my texts."

"My phone is off."

"I get worried, you know." I gave him a long look.

He glanced back at the fire. "Sorry." He watched the flames flicker for a while, and added another chip to watch it burn. "I'm just a little out of it these days. Waiting for news, waiting, waiting."

"You look exhausted."

"I am."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"I figured. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

He looked upwards. "You know, I really thought he'd still be alive. I was naïve. And stupid."

"No you weren't. "

"Do you know how they found him?"

"How?" I knew the story had been in the news, but honestly I was too afraid to read any of the articles.

"He was mummified."

"What?!"

"The killer, whoever it is, mummified him. He's been dead since the beginning. A big chunk was taken out of his body and then he was mummified. And they only found his body because the killer wanted them to find it. Somebody called in the location with a burner phone, and they say there's evidence the body was placed there recently. No DNA, no nothing. Just my dad's mummified body lying there in an abandoned building."

I was speechless. This was worse than I could have ever imagined. I hadn't looked for any news about this, afraid of what I might find, and it seemed I was right to be frightened. How could a human being be so cruel?

And so methodical, too. Mummifying a body wasn't an easy process, I imagined. And to keep that mummified body preserved for all these years…why? How?

I wrapped my arms around Natsu's shoulder and rested my head against his. It was all I could do. I couldn't speak, I couldn't make anything better. I could only hope this show of affection and support would be enough.

And maybe it was, because his shoulders began to shake, and soon he was crying, heavy sobs escaping his throat as he clung to me tightly, fingers digging into my arms. I held him tighter, until it felt like we would squeeze the life out of each other.

I didn't notice when it happened, but at some point a box of tissues and two glasses of water appeared next to us. I pulled a few tissues and handed them to Natsu as he wiped at his cheeks. He took them silently and blew his nose.

"You okay?"

He nodded. "Sorry," he mumbled.

I laughed lightly. "I'm sorry, too. I ended up crying as well." I passed him one of the waters and kept the other for myself.

"Where'd these come from?" he asked.

"I don't know. I didn't notice whoever brought them."

"It was probably Gramps. He's been doing this sort of thing a lot this week."

"That's nice of him."

"Actually, it was me," said Wendy's voice. I looked behind us, and she was standing at the sliding door watching us. "Gramps just made dinner. Come inside and eat. Lucy, you too."

Natsu hesitated. "Can I...just one moment..."

"Nope," I said, hopping up. It was time to play Positive Lucy. I grabbed his hands and pulled him to his feet. "Let's go eat. We gotta keep our energy up."

"He made Russian meatballs," Wendy told me.

"Yes! They're my favorite!" Natsu said. His smile was bright and natural, and it brought a smile to my face as well. His ability to bounce back always amazed me.

Mr. Makarov's cooking was great, like always, and conversation was cheerful. It was clear everyone was trying to keep the mood up, knowing that Natsu and I had just spent however long crying in the backyard, but they did it in a way that wasn't insensitive.

I was impressed that even Wendy was putting on a strong front for Natsu's sake. I'd have to talk to her later to check up on her. I'd been so focused on worrying about Natsu that I'd nearly forgotten Wendy was also involved with his father's case. As far as I knew, only Natsu's dad had been found, so what about Wendy's mom?

Wendy's case was a little different from Natsu's in a few ways. For one, it was her mother rather than her father who disappeared all those years ago. Secondly, the disappearance was her biological mother; unlike Natsu, Wendy didn't get thrown into the adoption system until the incident. And thirdly, her father was found the same day, killed with a bludgeon to the head. It wasn't unusual for the suspect — other family members of the victims had also been killed if they tried to interfere with the kidnapping — but little Wendy had been the one to find her father dead and her mother missing the next morning. A seven-year-old child alone in the house with her father's bloody body and her mother nowhere to be found.

And now it was likely her mother was dead, too. Had she been mummified like Natsu's dad? I wasn't sure what I should be hoping for. It all seemed so bleak.

But I shook those thoughts from my head. This was their burden to bear, and I had no right to get depressed about it in front of them. Not when they were trying their hardest to be strong for their own sakes. And if I made such faces while eating Mr. Makarov's cooking, he would most certainly be offended.

"It's been a while, Lucy," Mr. Makarov said as I sat down to join them at the dinner table. "Usually it's Natsu over at your house, not the other way around. You haven't had my meatballs before, have you?" I wasn't sure how Russian meatballs were different from any other kind of meatball, but at the very least I didn't think I'd had this particular dish made by Mr. Makarov before.

"I don't think so," I said. "I don't usually come over at dinnertime."

"Well, then today you're in for a treat," he said. "There's nothing like Russian comfort food to soothe the soul."

"Thanks, Gramps," Natsu said, spooning four huge meatballs onto his plate. He didn't waste a moment before digging in.

"Let the guest serve themselves first," Mr. Makarov reprimanded way too late. "Lucy?"

"Thanks," I said, trying not to laugh as Natsu made a mess of himself. Why was I dating this slob again?

"Natsu, manners," Wendy droned, really only half paying attention. It was obvious this happened a lot. And by the way Natsu obliviously ignored her, it was futile trying to get him to eat like a civilized person. I knew that firsthand; eating dinner with Natsu always required much more cleanup than even eating with all three of the girls.

"Natsu," I said slowly, "you know we've all been worried, right? I don't mean just me."

He looked at me and nodded.

"You should talk to your friends. Gajeel even got my number from Levy so he could text me asking about you. Apparently Jellal's been bugging Erza to bug me. It's a mess." I laughed. "Really, though, even if you don't want to talk they'll understand. Just let them know you're okay."

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Sorry."

"You got good timing, Lucy," Mr. Makarov said. "If you hadn't come along today, I would've forced his sorry butt out that door to go get some fresh air. Maybe you'll have better luck whipping him back into shape. A boy is allowed to grieve, but he's been making himself miserable on purpose. Aren't you, Natsu?"

"I'm just feeling kinda down," Natsu said, eating slowly. "Depressed and stuff. Lucy's right, though."

"See? He listens to you more than me now," Mr. Makarov sighed. "Why couldn't I be a pretty young blonde named Lucy?"

Wendy made a face. "Gramps, don't say things like that. It's gross."

"You make sure you take care of yourself too, Wendy," I said. "It can't be an easy time for you, either."

"Or you," Wendy said. "Didn't you tell Natsu you were moving?"

Suddenly the quietness felt stifling. I looked to Natsu for help.

"Nothing's confirmed," he said. "Focus on one thing at a time for now. No use worrying over stuff that might never happen."

Thanks, Natsu. "It's nothing to worry about yet," I said, ruffling Wendy's hair.

She pouted as she fixed her hair back to normal. Sometimes I forgot she wasn't that much younger than me, but with a face like that and hair that fluffy, who could resist? Plus, it got things back into a normal mood as we strayed away from the troublesome topics and on to the impending start of school. A certain heaviness lingered in the air, but the good-natured groanings about school took precedence for a little while and everyone was smiling.

 

Then actual school started. And the smiles started to fade again.

"Yo Dragneel, I heard what happened. You okay man?"

"I'm fine," Natsu said for probably the millionth time that week. After that snappy answer, he bluntly ignored his soccer teammate by breezing past him in the hallway, leaving me to play catchup so I wouldn't also get left behind.

"It really is big news around here," I marveled. "I avoided media outlets when it happened so I didn't realize how much coverage it got. Is there anyone who  _doesn't_  know?"

"I sure hope so," Natsu grumbled, "because I'm getting sick of all the pity."

"You'd think people would try to be a little more sensitive to these things."

"You'd think."

I grimaced. Natsu was in a  _really_  bad mood. How many questions had he gotten about it today? I knew that one just now was far from being the first, but he sounded particularly worn out and irritated today. At least I'd be with him at home as he got some time to relax; today, we were hanging out in his room. I'd recently discovered the softness of that one red dragon plushie he kept by his bed, and I couldn't wait to squeeze it.

But when we entered his house, we realized Mr. Makarov had a guest over. They were sitting in the living room, talking in deep voices. The guest was a rather large man with a heavy brow, square jaw, and wild red-tinted hair.

Natsu stopped short.

"Welcome home, Natsu," Mr. Makarov said. "You have a guest. He came here an hour ago looking for you."

Natsu's face slowly grew into a grin. "Uncle Atlas!"

The man's face lit up. "Is that Natsu?" He stood and the two men embraced. "Natsu, you're all grown up. Look at you! Igneel's boy really grew up well. Oh, and who's this?"

Natsu pulled me forward. "This is Lucy! Oh," he reached down to pick up his cat who'd come to greet him, "and this is Happy. They're my best friends! Well— Happy's a cat, and Lucy's my girlfriend."

The man let out a hearty laugh. "You're at that age already, are ya? Nice to meet you, Lucy, Happy." He shook Happy's paw, to which the little cat meowed.

"Nice to meet you," I mumbled. If Natsu called him uncle, then was he Igneel's brother? It hadn't occurred to me that Natsu could have family outside of what I already knew, but it made sense. Even if he didn't know his biological family, he had Igneel's family, and Mr. Makarov's.

Even after almost a year of knowing each other, there was probably a lot I still didn't know about Natsu.

"What're you here for, Uncle Atlas? Ah…well…"

Uncle Atlas scratched the back of his head, a familiar gesture. Is that where Natsu got it from? "Yeah, it's rough, isn't it? But since it's for sure that he's gone, we have to hold services."

"Yeah, I guess so," Natsu, said, scuffing his feet.

"Sit down and let's talk," Mr. Makarov said. "Lucy, maybe—"

"Yeah. I'll go," I said.

But Natsu grabbed my hand. "No. We were gonna hang out today, so stay here."

I hesitated, but somehow I could feel the anxiety through the touch of his hand. I squeezed his hand back slightly before sitting down next to him.

Uncle Atlas spoke first. "I'm sure you already know that they called me in first for all the things regarding Igneel."

Natsu nodded. "You were his emergency contact, right?'

"You were just a kid at the time, and you still are. But you're his only kin, so I thought you should be involved." He must've seen the curiosity on my face, because he added, "Igneel didn't have any siblings, and he wasn't close to any cousins either. He and Natsu only had each other, really. I'm just a close friend of Igneel's."

"But I call him 'uncle,'" Natsu said.

"I'd tell you to call me 'Mr. Flame' but you're Natsu's girlfriend so you're just as much family as I am, so you can call me 'Uncle Atlas,' too." He winked, and I laughed nervously.

"You're scaring her, Atlas," Mr. Makarov said.

"Hey, what does she call  _you_? Gramps?"

"He's Mr. Makarov," I said.

"She's a student," Mr. Makarov said.

Uncle Atlas laughed. "Ah, right. I always forget you're a teacher. It doesn't suit someone like you."

"Mr. Makarov is actually really popular at school. He's a good teacher."

"Yeah, yeah, you're not the first to tell me that."

I continued, "Though I will say that I don't know why he's warning you not to scare me when he's the one who makes gross innuendos every time I come here."

Mr. Makarov blustered, and Uncle Atlas let out another mighty laugh. "I like this girl!" Why did all the people in this extended family have the same reaction to me? I guess I should be flattered that they all proclaimed to like me, but...

Natsu slung an arm around me. "She's awesome, right?"

"I'm glad he's got you, Lucy," Uncle Atlas said. Seems the topic was shifting to me for the time being. Great. "I always worried about that boy. Growing up, he had little interest in girls, or boys for that matter."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why, is that a problem?"

He looked taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered. "You really picked a good one, Natsu. Keep her. She's got spunk."

"You don't have to tell me that," he grumbled.

"Anyway, back to business. We had that small ceremony a while back when they couldn't find him, but it wasn't a real funeral. Now we have Igneel and we know he's gone, so it's time to give him a proper send-off. Natsu, I wanted to check with your schedule this weekend. You're one of the people who absolutely  _must_  be there, after all."

"This weekend?" Natsu exclaimed. "So soon." It was still Wednesday.

"That's usually how funerals are, Natsu," Mr. Makarov said gently. "It's never good to wait too long. The fact that it's been delayed this long is only due to police investigations regarding his body. They'll be done gathering evidence in a few days."

"What...what will you do with him?" Natsu said. I squeezed his hand, trying not to tear up at the sound of his voice cracking.

"You mean his body?"

Natsu nodded.

"He'll be cremated."

Natsu nodded again. "That sounds right. Dad was like me; he loved fire. He loved burning things."

Uncle Atlas laughed, a loud bellow of a laugh that echoed off the walls. "Don't we all? You're right; I didn't even think of it that way, but it's a right way to send him off to the afterlife."

"We'll have to prepare the family altar in the house, too," Mr. Makarov said. "I can't be of much help with that, but you did it for Wendy's father all those years ago, so maybe you can do it again for Natsu."

"Of course," Uncle Atlas said. "Always happy to pass down cultural traditions to the kids. They gotta learn how to do this stuff, especially for when they have kids of their own, eh?" He winked at Natsu and me, and I swear Natsu was ready to tackle him.

Makarov started cracking up. "You're even worse than me, Atlas! And I'll bet there's better traditions to pass on than just the family altar."

"Eh, that's true. Just trying to lighten the mood a little, y'know?"

"We're talking about arranging a funeral here," Natsu said darkly.

Uncle Atlas sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. Shall we get back to business?"


	14. Funerals and Fires

The scent of incense was strong. It brought back memories of when I was much younger, crying, "Mommy! Mommy!" over my mother's dead body lying lifeless in its casket. She'd been given a traditional Christian burial, minus the religious parts, but my father had still wanted to offer incense. Ever since then, incense became the smell of death.

Igneel's funeral was non-traditional in the sense that it was being held seven years after his death, but the police had only released his body from forensics a day before the wake was held. And since his body had been maimed and mummified, it was to be a closed-casket funeral.

Natsu and Uncle Atlas were the primary mourners, greeting friends and family as they paid their respects. It was a small affair; most of the people who knew Igneel in life had already moved on to other places. But I was there, and so were the rest of Natsu's friends. We stayed close together, not knowing any of the other adults present. I took Wendy under my wing, holding her with an arm around her trembling shoulders. This was her first wake and her first funeral, and I feared it was soon to be one of many if more victims were found.

But that was an issue for another day. Right now, I kept my focus on Natsu's face, his furrowed brow and the slight downturn of his lips. It was going to be a difficult day for him. He already had the wake yesterday, the funeral today, and there was the cremation later. I wondered how involved Natsu planned to be. This all couldn't be easy for him to handle with only Uncle Atlas for support.

The funeral went by relatively quickly. Once the priest arrived, he recited the sutra, we all placed incense, and then it was time for everyone non-family to go home.

I approached Natsu. "You okay?" I asked, studying his features. The circles under his eyes were dark.

"Yeah," he croaked. "Sleepy."

"I can tell. Will you be all right?"

"I got Uncle Atlas with me. It'll be fine."

"That's the spirit," I encouraged. I gave him a hug, squeezing him tight. His arms circled around my back to return the embrace. We stayed like that for a little longer than usual. He probably needed it. "Just give me a call if you need anything, all right? We're all here for you."

"Yeah. Thanks."

As I was checking to make sure I had everything before I left, a funeral home employee approached Natsu a few feet away. "A couple people left condolences cards," he said.

"Oh," said Natsu, taking the small pile of envelopes into his hands. "Thanks. Who are they from?"

"I wouldn't know," the man said.

"Okay." Natsu started walking toward me as he shuffled through them, checking the names on the back of each one. "I don't recognize any of— Hm?" He pulled out one of them that was plain white, but on second glance, it wasn't an envelope at all; it was just a folded sheet of paper. Natsu opened it up, and instantly stopped walking.

"Who's it from?" I asked, trying to resist the temptation to peek. But when he continued to stare in horror at the card, I gave in and peered over his shoulder.

 _Dearest Natsu,_  
Your sister will get to see her mother soon.  
—Acnologia

My blood ran cold.

I looked around frantically for the man who'd given the cards to us, but I didn't see him. He would be able to tell us what the man who'd given the letter looked like, maybe. But I couldn't see him; he'd disappeared as soon as he gave Natsu the envelopes.

I ran up to the employee by the casket. "Hey, where's the guy who collected the condolences cards?" I asked, voice shrill with panic.

This other employee looked confused. "Condolences cards? There were the money envelopes yesterday, and the gifts, but if you're looking for cards, you might just want to wait for them to come in the mail."

"But someone just gave them to Natsu. Someone from the funeral home. He was wearing the uniform."

The man gestured behind him to the men gathered in the hallway waiting to move the casket to the crematorium. "Well, there's just me and the other three here." But none of those three were the man, either.

"But..." He had to be here somewhere. I wasn't just seeing things, right?

The worker in front of me seemed to be catching on that something was off. "Look, I don't know who gave him those envelopes. Why, is something wrong?"

"Yes. There's a letter in there that we need to know who it's from. There's a threat."

The man was startled. He seemed to be familiar with the circumstances around Igneel's death. "A threat? Should we call the police."

"Yes," I said, maybe a little too quickly. I glanced back at Natsu, but he was still in shock staring at that letter. Angry tears were starting to fall from his eyes. "Yes, please do that for us," I said again. "Get them here as soon as possible. Tell them that the deceased's son just got a note from the killer."


	15. Letters and Love

The police arrived quickly after we called them and snatched the envelopes from Natsu's shaking hands as evidence. They questioned Natsu and I to get the suspect's description. It had been so unexpected that I didn't really have much to say. But he seemed young, with straight black hair. That's about all I remembered. Natsu's memory wasn't much better.

Once they were done with us, they sent us away so they could continue investigating, me back to my apartment and Natsu to visit the crematorium with Uncle Atlas.

Daddy was waiting for me when I got back.

"You're late," he said, a bit snappish.

I sighed, letting my hair down as I took off my shoes. "It was a funeral."

"A long one."

"Yeah."

I didn't feel like arguing with him right now. I felt so drained, so shaken. While I hadn't been the one to interact with him directly, just knowing that I was that close to a serial killer was terrifying. All I wanted to do right now was take a warm bath and take some time to myself so I could properly process what just happened.

The funeral, the scent of incense, the hushed murmurs, the bright smile on Natsu's face as he assured person after person that he was holding up just fine. The wave of cold air that hit my bones when I read the letter. The police. Questions. Everything became a blur.

I needed to lie down.

"I'll be in my room," I said, running for the door.

"Now, Lucy—"

I shut it behind me and threw myself onto the bed just as the dizziness was becoming too much. I willed the pounding in my head to stop. But I was too scared, too overwhelmed. And Daddy was in the other room, so I couldn't even cry.

Pain pricking the corners of my eyes, I smooshed my face into a pillow and let the tears fall.

 

At school, there were murmurs in the hallway again, and this time even I was involved. But as usual, interest faded quickly. Life goes on.

"Gray." He paused at hearing his name, letting me catch up to him in the hallway after school. "I have some questions to ask you."

"Shoot."

"It's about Lyon."

As expected, Gray bristled at the mention of his half-brother. "What about him?"

"Well, it's been going on for almost a year now so I figure I should ask soon before it becomes serious."

"Okay, really, what is it?"

"I just want to know if he's a good guy." He still looked confused and suspicious, so I elaborated. "If I'm going to entrust Juvia to him, I need to know he's a good guy. He comes around from time to time, but I don't know him well enough to make an assessment. And, well, I figured you might be able to help me with that."

"Oh. That."

"So?"

Gray looked extremely uncomfortable. "Um, I guess he's a decent dude. He's a good-for-nothing, but his personality's all right sometimes."

I frowned. "Very helpful, Gray."

"Look, I don't know what you want from me."

"He's been wooing Juvia for months. If she decided she's giving him a chance and they start dating, would I be able to trust him not to break her heart or do anything bad to her?"

"I-I think so," Gray stuttered. The bewildered look was back. "Why, does...does Juvia want to date him?" That wasn't the case, actually; I was mostly just being a belatedly overprotective friend who'd realized I didn't know much about Lyon other than his crush on Juvia.

"That's Juvia's business," I said. "I don't go around talking about my friends' crushes."

"Oh." Gray looked nervous, so I patted his back.

"Don't worry," I said. "I can start rooting for him if you want. I know you don't have any intention of dating Juvia, so I'd really rather her fall in love with someone who loves her back, you know? That's mainly what this is about. As for Juvia's feelings, well, you'd have to ask her because it's not my place to talk about it."

"That...that's not really necessary..." he mumbled. And was that...was that a  _blush_  on his cheeks? Was I seeing that right? Did Juvia have some hope after all?

I asked Gray about Lyon because I was serious about switching sides to support Lyon over Gray. I was tired of seeing Juvia frustrated with Gray never reciprocating her affections. Sometimes it felt like he didn't even want to be  _friends_  with her, and I think that's what hurt her most. But she claimed there were moments that gave her hope, and I was starting to see what she was talking about. A lot of Gray's behavior concerning Lyon's affections for Juvia could be attributed to his petty rivalry with his older brother, but Gray  _blushing_? This was new. This might mean something.

"Well, thanks I guess. And good luck."

"With what?"

I smiled a bit. Juvia was planning on giving him an official confession of her feelings soon, and I hoped it would go well for her. As for Gray, well, I'd just have to see what his reaction would be. "Nothing," I said.

I ran off to go to my student council meeting. I gave Erza a thumbs-up when I entered. Mission accomplished.

 

We met up with Juvia when the meeting was over, and I reported my conversation with Gray.

"He said Lyon has an all right personality," I said, triggering laughter from the other two.

"Then Juvia has Gray's endorsement of Lyon as a rebound if Gray rejects Juvia," Juvia said.

Erza grinned. "Do what you gotta do, girl. But hopefully a rebound won't be necessary."

"Speaking of boys and rejection, how are things with Jellal?" I asked her. The two of them were awkward last I saw them together at the funeral, but Erza said they were working things out.

"We still have to sit down and talk properly," Erza said, "but we hung out at the bakery yesterday and it wasn't too bad. If my parents noticed anything weird between us, they didn't mention it."

"You should really figure this stuff out sooner rather than later," I said.

Erza sighed. "I know. It's just always so dramatic when it comes to the two of us."

"Jellal is a drama queen," Juvia said.

"Erza is, too, a little," I added. I gave her a quick look to check her reaction, but she just laughed.

"We've been like that since we were little," she said. "I doubt it will change anytime soon. We'll be fine."

I exhaled. "You're so strong, Erza. I don't know if I could deal with everything as calmly as you."

"It takes a lot of practice and discipline," she said, nodding sagely.

My phone began to ring. Natsu. I quickly apologized to the others and put it to my ear.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Where are you right now? Is the meeting over?"

"Yeah. I'm with Erza and Juvia now."

"Oh. Sorry to interrupt, but can you come over? They found Wendy's mom."

 

"Thanks for coming," Natsu said. Wendy was curled up on the couch, silent. The police had left a long time ago, her friend Chelia came over (Chelia was busy at first, which was why Natsu had asked for me in the meantime), Chelia eventually had to go home, and now darkness had fallen.

"Yeah, of course. I'm glad I can at least lend moral support. I feel so helpless."

"We all do," Natsu said, sighing. His brow furrowed. "I don't know who this 'Acnologia' person is, but I wanna beat 'em to a pulp. If I ever get my eyes on them, I'll grind them into dust."

"I'm with you there," I said, "but I'll leave all the ass-kicking to you and Wendy and Gajeel."

"We're holding the funeral this weekend after forensics are finished," he said.

"I hope they find evidence this time."

"Me too."

"Ah."

"Hm?"

I pointed to Wendy. Her eyes were close and her breathing steady. She'd fallen asleep.

Wordlessly, Natsu scooped his little sister into his arms. She turned a bit, eyes half-opening to locate the person carrying her. She wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck as he brought her into her bedroom. I helped by opening the door and pulling back the sheets. Then we tucked her in together.

"Poor thing," I said once we were out of her room. We wandered across the hall into Natsu's instead, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"She's a strong girl," Natsu said. "She'll be all right."

"Even so, it's a lot to go through. There's too much drama these days. That Acnologia person, whoever they are, really needs to get arrested already."

"They should've been arrested a long time ago."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Lucy?"

"Mm?"

"Can you hold me for a sec?"

A pang of sadness tugged on my heartstrings. "Of course, Natsu," I said, pulling his head to my chest as he wrapped his arms around my stomach. "You don't even have to ask."

"It's just really hard these days."

"I know."

"Happy's here, but it isn't enough sometimes."

"Speaking of which, where is he right now?"

"I saw him and Charle in Wendy's room."

"Ah. I guess she needs them the most right now."

His arms squeezed me a little tighter. "Besides, I have you."

I smiled. I ran my fingers through his hair and trailed them down his cheek. "Always," I said.

As I caressed his head, I felt Natsu shift in my arms, turning to kiss below my collarbone.

My heart rate shot up instantly and tingly sensations spread all throughout my body. My heart was only inches from where his lips had touched my skin, and it felt as if he had kissed my heart itself.

I relaxed my hold on Natsu, and he lifted his head up to look at me.

"Lucy," he said, his voice rough.

I didn't trust myself to speak.

"Lucy."

"Y-yeah?"

"You know I love you, right?"

My heart pounded in my chest. Here in my arms, one of the best people I knew wanted to make sure I knew how much he loved me. This wonderful, strange, overenthusiastic, kind, selfless,  _beautiful_  man was telling me he loved me.

I took Natsu's face in my hands and leaned down to place a chaste kiss on his lips. Tears were pooling in my eyes and I felt like an idiot, but I was just so happy and sad at the same time. Happy at the words he had uttered, sad at the circumstances that led him to do it.

"Of course I know, Natsu," I said, kissing him again. "I love you, too. So, so much."

"Mm," he mumbled, leaning up into me. "It's scary so I didn't say it for a long time."

"You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"But I want you to know."

I smiled against his lips, pulling him just a little closer. "And now I do."


	16. Evidence and Elation

There was some good news on Friday.

I checked my messages after cheer practice — since I was in the unusual position of having been cheer captain as a junior, another senior had taken over the position — to find several texts from Natsu. The perpetrator had made a mistake with Wendy's mom; they left fingerprints.

I dialed Natsu's number. He picked it up after two rings.

"Hey, I got your texts. That's great news!"

"Yeah. Wendy was so relieved when they told us."

"I'll bet. Do they have any suspects?"

"They said no. But now that they have fingerprints, they'll have the person in no time."

"Well, if it's just fingerprints, it'll take a while."

"You mean the computers can't just do it for them?"

"Technology isn't quite there yet in real life."

"Well, fuck."

I grimaced. "Sorry. Maybe I should've let you keep your hopes up."

"No, I just...I told Wendy..."

"I'm sure she knows to take everything you say with a grain of salt."

"Hey!"

I laughed as I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could shuffle my bags around. "You mean well. Is she home now?"

"No, she went over to Chelia's. Wanna come over anyway?"

I paused. I was at the entrance to the school about to turn right to go to the bus stop, but I turned around and went left toward Natsu's house. If he was inviting me, might as well. "On my way. Get a towel ready for me; I need to shower first."

"But Gramps isn't home yet," Natsu whined. "Play with me before he gets here."

"Mm, I'll think about it."

"Lucyyyy."

"Today was auditions. I'm really gross right now."

"I had soccer, so I'm gross too. We can be gross together."

"Ew. I'll just shower."

"We could do that together too."

I nearly tripped over my own feet. I was about to scold him before I realized that's exactly what he wanted me to do. And since we were on the phone, I had the advantage of him being unable to see my face turning cherry red. "Oo, kinky. Let's do it."

I could practically hear him pouting on the other end. "What? No. You're supposed to get flustered." He paused as I heard some noise in the background. "Shit, Gramps just got back."

"Knew it," I said. "Sorry, Natsu, no showering together."

"Maybe next time."

I rolled my eyes. For someone who wasn't even interested in sex, he sure liked riling me up. "I'll be there in a minute. Try not to get too restless."

When Natsu answered the door, he swooped me up into his arms and went in for a kiss.

"What's with you today?" I said, giggling. As he mentioned, he did smell like sweat, which made me feel a bit better about my own sweatiness.

"I'm just in a good mood."

I smiled. "That's good to hear." I glanced over his shoulder, and he must've known what I was thinking because he laughed at me.

"Don't worry, Gramps is in the shower."

"Then I guess I can't take one."

"Sorry. I tried to tell him that you were coming, but he insisted he wanted to go first before you got here."

"Can I put my stuff down now?" My backpack and gym bag were getting heavy.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." He let me go and I went into the house, dropping my bags off in his room.

"How was practice?" I asked him.

He flopped down on the bed and growled. "Gray keeps bossing me around just because he's captain."

"Isn't that a captain's job? To keep troublemakers like you in line?"

"That snowflake is enjoying it too much," he grumbled.

"It  _is_  pretty fun being in charge," I said.

"But you're not captain anymore."

"No, but I did get reelected as class council president."

"Right."

"Meanwhile my boyfriend spends his free time dancing instead of doing homework."

"I had soccer today! And bboying counts as exercise," Natsu said, pouting. "It keeps my balance good." He rolled to his feet and into a headstand. After a moment of balancing, he removed his hands from the floor so he was only balancing on his head. "See?" He flipped back up to his feet.

"Careful not to knock anything over," I said, looking warily around at the furniture.

"I know what I'm doing," he said, folding himself into seating cross-legged on the floor next to me. I leaned over onto him, using his shoulder as a pillow. He moved, arranging me so I was resting with my head on his chest, his arms keeping me secure and comfortable.

"Wake me up when Mr. Makarov is out of the shower."

"Sure."

"Make sure you wake me up, okay?"

"Aye, sir."

"And don't call me 'sir,'" I mumbled. His chest rumbled with a low laugh, and I closed my eyes to get some quick rest after an intense day of cheer.

 

I actually did fall asleep. And he didn't wake me up. He claimed he tried, but given I woke up in the same exact position I'd fallen asleep in, I somehow doubted that.

I did feel well-rested, but by the time my nap was over, it was time for me to go back home and make dinner for Daddy. Wendy was still at Chelia's so I didn't get to see her, but Natsu said he'd pass along anything I wanted to say to her. I told him I'd just text her instead. He somehow managed to forget that Wendy and I were actually friends.

Then the next day was the day Juvia was planning to confess to Gray. She managed to get Gray to go ice skating with her in the afternoon, so once cheer practice was over I went over to Erza's apartment to wait for Juvia's "date" to be over. If it was bad news, we had plenty of ice cream and chocolates on the ready. And if it was good news, we'd eat all the sweets anyway in celebration.

We missed Levy today, but she said she had a family thing this weekend so she wasn't able to join our little hang-out. Instead, it was just me and Erza lounging around in her room.

Erza knelt on the rug with fabric laid across her lap, stitching metallic scraps of fabric in a plated pattern. Though she always seemed too serious to be into dressing up, Erza actually loved costumes and costume design. Right now she was on a mission to create the perfect faux-armor dress. Why? Because she was Erza, and Erza loved giving herself these kinds of personal projects.

While she was working on that, I sat with my laptop looking at college applications. Now that we were high school seniors, we had university to worry about on top of all the usual concerns. I had a whole ton of prestigious business schools to apply to. And I didn't tell my dad this, but I was paying special attention to those where I could double major in astronomy.

"Do you know what Natsu's going for?" Erza asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. We haven't really talked about it. Well, we did a little over the summer, but he's carefree as usual. I think he'll end up going in undecided."

"Sounds like Natsu."

"You never did tell me what you think you're going to major in."

"History, of course."

"Of course," I said.

"How are you holding up, by the way?"

"Me? Or Natsu?"

"You. You were there when Natsu was given that letter, right? You haven't talked about it at all, so I can tell something's wrong."

I pushed my laptop away from me a bit. "To be honest, I was really shaken up by it. I keep having nightmares that that man is going to come into my room and kidnap me. It's like watching myself from the outside as I'm captured and mummified. It's nothing I can't handle, but...it does make it hard to get proper sleep when I keep waking up from that kind of dream."

"Have you talked to anyone about it?"

I shook my head. "I'm trying to focus on being there for Natsu and Wendy. If I let that dream get to me, I'll feel even more helpless. Supporting my friends is the only way to really feel like I'm dealing with those feelings properly."

"Still, you shouldn't keep it all inside. I'm not as close to Natsu and Wendy and Gajeel as you are, but I'm always here to listen. It can't just be you one-sidedly giving support to others. That's not fair to anyone."

"Yeah. Thanks for worrying."

"Erza!" came Erza's mother's voice. "Juvia's here."

We looked at each other, then at Erza's bedroom door.

"Juvia!" I shouted, jumping up to open the door, leaving the heavy topic behind. She was already running to the door and jumped straight into my arms.

"Lucy! Erza! Juvia is so happy!"

"Wait, does that mean he said yes?" I exclaimed.

"Juvia was not rejected," Juvia confirmed.

Erza and I cheered, the three of us squealing and jumping around in a giant group hug.

"I'm so happy for you," I cried.

"You said you were not rejected," Erza said. "What exactly did he say?" Leave it to Erza to pick up on the strange wording.

"Well, Juvia told Gray—"

"Let's go inside," I interrupted. We were still in the hallway, no doubt within hearing range of Erza's parents. They didn't need to be in on this conversation.

We moved back into Erza's bedroom and sat in a circle on the carpet. Erza's sewing project was pushed aside so we could focus all our attention on Juvia's story.

"Okay. So ice skating was wonderful. Gray is a very good ice skater. Juvia said he should go into hockey, and Gray actually did play ice hockey as a child."

"That would explain why he skates so well," I said.

"Yes, Juvia thought so too. Juvia is also good at ice skating and was looking forward to showing off, but Gray was too good for Juvia's talents to be impressive. We raced a few times and Juvia only won once."

"I'm sure he appreciated you being able to keep up with him," Erza said.

Juvia nodded. "Juvia hopes so. It looked like he was enjoying himself very much."

"So? Then what?" I prodded.

"After ice skating, we went to a coffee place to warm up. Juvia got hot chocolate and it was very delicious. Juvia and Gray were talking, and Juvia said she had something to talk about with him. Gray looked rather uncomfortable, but Gray always looks uncomfortable when Juvia tries to talk about personal topics. He said Juvia could go ahead."

"So you told him?"

Juvia nodded. "Gray said he already knew. Juvia had to ask him to give a proper response." She stopped talking and smiled widely.

"And? What was his reply?"

Juvia fidgeted. "Lucy and Erza might not think much of it, but for Gray it was actually a rather positive response. Gray said that as long as Juvia does not embarrass him in public it's fine."

"That  _does_  sound like Gray," I said.

"It's fine? What's fine?" Erza said.

Juvia squirmed. "Dating, I guess."

I squealed. "Juvia, that's great! So you guys are going out now?"

Juvia nodded. "Quietly, but yes. I– Juvia is very pleased."

"But he said not to embarrass you in public," Erza said. "That worries me."

Juvia just laughed. "Juvia pointed that out, too. Juvia asked if embarrassing him in private was okay, and he said turned very red and said sure. Gray is just shy in public and doesn't like attention. Juvia can be very loud sometimes without realizing it, so Juvia just needs to use her indoor voice and it'll be fine. Then Juvia can be as loud as she wants in private or when it's just friends."

"Well, then I am happy for you," Erza said. "Just be careful he doesn't try to control you too much or make you feel like an embarrassment."

"Juvia likes Gray a lot, but Juvia also likes herself and wants to be respected by Gray. If Juvia does not feel respected, Juvia will dump him for Lyon."

I laughed. "Poor Lyon doesn't even know he's been turned into a running joke around here. Have you talked to him properly?"

"Gray said he would talk to Lyon," Juvia said. "Juvia will also talk to him, but Gray should tell him first."

"Good girl," I said.

Erza clapped her hands together. "Now, who's ready to celebrate with some ice cream?"

"Me!" I cried.

"Juvia is!" she chorused.

Erza came back a minute later with ice cream for each of us and a bag of chocolates. We all chattered excitedly, getting high on sugar and laughter and Juvia's romantic euphoria.

"Too bad Levy couldn't be here," Erza said.

Things got quiet.

"Levy did not tell Juvia what the family matter was. Is everything okay?"

Erza and I looked at each other. I shrugged. "I don't know. She hasn't told me anything either."

"Not even you?" Erza said. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "Sounds serious."

"I know something's been bothering her. At first I thought it was something with Gajeel, but now I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with her family. Or maybe both."

"Whatever it is, it must be hard for her to talk about," Erza said.

"She'll confide in us when she's ready," I said.

"Now Juvia is extra worried," Juvia said, frowning. "Juvia thought that Levy didn't tell her because Juvia is not as close to her as Erza and Lucy, but if even Erza and Lucy don't know..."

I smiled a little sadly. "Juvia, you're an important friend to Levy, too. She wouldn't leave you out of the loop like that."

Suddenly Juvia's eyes widened. "Ah! But Juvia did hear something! Juvia's parents were talking to Gajeel's aunt and uncle the other day. Another shop went bankrupt so they are expanding and taking on that shop's employees."

I gasped.

"That couldn't be Levy's parents' place, could it?" Erza said.

"I haven't heard anything," I said despairingly. If Levy couldn't even trust me with the information that her family's business went bankrupt, what kind of a friend was I?

"Juvia hopes not," Juvia said.

"But it could explain so much. Oh my god. Guys, is Levy going to be okay?" I said.

"Don't panic," Erza commanded, putting a firm hand on my shoulder. "If Levy was in real trouble, she'd tell us. For now, we'll wait for her to say something on her own terms. We can speculate all we want, but ultimately she knows what's best for her."

I sighed. "You're right. I'm just so worried. I feel helpless."

"You can't do everything, Lucy," Erza said gently. "You've been there for Natsu and his sister these days, haven't you?"

I nodded.

"When Levy is ready to talk about whatever's bothering her, you can be there for her, too. That's all anyone can do. And trust me, it makes all the difference in the world."

"Thanks, Erza," I said, smiling at her. I grabbed my spoon and held it up. "More ice cream, please! It's time to celebrate Juvia's success and eat my feelings at the same time!"

"Huzzah!" Erza cheered, jumping up to get the carton.


	17. News and Neighbors

When I went into the library, Levy was with Jet and Droy, her nose buried in a book. Textbooks lay spread out on the table before her neglected in favor of the novel in her hands. Jet and Droy, meanwhile, were joking around with each other in hushed tones. They looked up from whatever they were looking at on Jet's phone when I approached the table.

"Hey," I said. Levy looked up too, hearing my voice. "Can I talk to Levy for a sec?"

Jet gestured toward Levy. "Go ahead," he said.

"Alone," I clarified.

Jet and Droy looked at each other. "Yeah, sure." They got up and said their goodbyes to Levy before leaving the library. Jet put a hand on my shoulder as he passed me on the way out. "Good luck," he whispered in my ear.

I took the chair Droy had been sitting in. "So," I said.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"A couple things, but we're not talking about me right now. We're talking about you."

"Oh."

"I know you don't want to talk about it, and I've kept my distance to let you work things out, but I'm worried. We're all worried."

"Sorry I couldn't be there for Juvia this past weekend," Levy said.

"Family issues, right?"

She looked down at her book. "Yeah."

"Juvia heard some things from Gajeel's aunt and uncle."

Levy looked up sharply.

"We didn't want to assume, but if the shop that's closing is your parents', we thought it could explain what's been bothering you lately. And I just want you to know that no matter what it is, we're here for you. I mean, we could be entirely wrong, but you haven't told us anything recently so when we heard that, we got worried. At first I thought it had something to do with Gajeel, which I guess it still kinda does, but..."

"Yeah," Levy said, "what you guys thought is right."

I looked up at her face, still tucked behind her book to avoid meeting my eyes. Sadness washed over me. "No way. I'm so sorry, Levy."

"It's tough, but I'm actually kind of fine. I just didn't know how to talk about it. Sorry, Lu."

"It's okay."

"Honestly, you were right about it having something to do with Gajeel, though. Since my parents are going to be working for his uncle once we're closed for good."

"That's got to be weird."

"Yeah. And even before all this happened, I was starting to question my relationship with Gajeel."

I grimaced. "I was wondering when that would start to happen. It's been so long and you've made no progress."

"We're just friends, but we go on dates. We call them dates. He says he's attracted to me, but he never shows it, even when we go out together. He'll hang out at the library with me while I'm reading, and it's really nice just being with someone and not even having to talk for it to be comfortable. All my friends are like that, but I didn't expect it with Gajeel. Then he asks me out. We go on dates. And now what? What are we? I don't even know anymore. I was on board with this weird kind of relationship at first, but now I want something more clear. More than friends but less than lovers is where we are, I guess. And it's been like that for so long, and I just...I'm  _tired_ , Lu. I'm so tired."

"Sounds like something you need to talk out with him."

"But I'm afraid he'll get scared away."

"Levy, if he's scared away by having to define your relationship one way or the other, then you were never really friends."

"I know, but it's still hard to talk about, you know?"

"Remember how long it took me to confess to Natsu?"

Levy giggled. " _Way_  too long."

"That's what you're doing right now. And whatever happens, you'll be okay. I know you will."

She flung her arms around me for a tight hug. "Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you."

I hugged her back. "Do Jet and Droy know about all this?"

"They know about the bankruptcy but not Gajeel. They still don't approve anyway, so they'd just say, 'I told you so,'" Levy said. She released the hug so I could see her make a face. "They're such children, honestly."

"Says the child," I teased.

"If that's a comment about my age, then we're all children here, including you. If it's a comment about my height, then you are no longer my friend."

I pouted. "Aww, come on, Levy."

"Sorry. Ex-friend."

"Boo. Fine, you're an adult-y adult. Happy?"

"No, but I'll let it slide."

"You're too generous."

"I know."

We both burst out in laughter, the mood lighter. I was glad Levy finally talked to me about what was going on. When she'd hugged me, I could feel her trembling, so I knew it was all a lot harder on her than she was letting on. Fine? Nobody could be fine when their family was losing everything. I knew that from experience. But I wasn't in any position to help her financially, so all I could do was support her like this and be an ear to listen when she needed it.

 

Natsu was at my place when he got a call from Mr. Makarov.

"It's news about the case," Natsu said, his expression brightening for a moment before becoming serious. He put the phone on speaker.

"Lucy?" came Mr. Makarov's voice.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said.

"The police were here just a moment ago, and I said I'd pass this information along to Natsu. Long story short, they know who did it."

My breath hitched in my throat. This was wonderful. This was great. Natsu gripped my arm, and my eyes filled with happy tears. This was too good to be true. There had to be a catch. Right?

Mr. Makarov continued, "That sketch they did from you guys' descriptions was recognized by a woman who says she was neighbors with him a while back. They don't know his location now, but they did get a name: Zeref."

"Wait, but he signed as Acnologia," Natsu said.

"Apparently that's just an alias. They're not really sure why he chose Acnologia of all names, but his real name is just as unusual. They found someone in the system named Zeref who'd been in for a DUI once. The woman was able to identify him, and the prints match those found at the scene with Wendy's mother. They'll probably have you two come in to identify his face. Natsu, I told them you'd be there after school on Monday, and Lucy, they'll probably call you soon to schedule a time next week."

"So you mean they've got the bad guy?" I said.

"Not quite. He doesn't live near that woman anymore, and they've been unable to track him down. He moved away around the same time the kidnappings were being committed, so he probably started using another alias. There's no one called Acnologia in this area that they know of, so that means he has a third name."

"Why'd he even sign the letter then?" Natsu said, irritated. "If he's only using that name for the letter, what's the point?"

"To throw us off, perhaps?" Mr. Makarov guessed. "I don't know. But there is a chance he will show up at Grandeeny's funeral like he did at Igneel's, so police will be undercover to make sure everyone stays safe, and to catch him if he does show up."

"Isn't the funeral tomorrow?" I said, my heart rate climbing. I wasn't sure I could handle seeing that man again. The first time had been so terrifying that the very thought of him being at Wendy's mother's funeral chilled me to the bone.

"You don't have to come," Mr. Makarov said. "Wendy will understand."

"No, I'm coming," I said definitively. "I'm just...a little nervous, is all."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Natsu said, making a fist. "I'll protect everyone!"

"Leave it to the police, Natsu," Mr. Makarov warned, his voice stern through the phone.

Natsu didn't say anything back, but in a low voice I heard him mumble, "Make me."

 

The funeral for Wendy's mom had a lot more people than the one for Natsu's dad. I hadn't realized Wendy still had a grandmother; I'd assumed that since she was had the same situation as Natsu, she also didn't have any family to take her in. But it turns out her grandmother was still alive, but living in a nursing home. I wondered why Wendy hadn't mentioned it before.

Although, when I tried talking to the elderly woman, I started to think that maybe she and Wendy didn't have the best relationship. It seemed fine on the outside, but this woman was ruthlessly mean. There's nothing worse than a cranky old person.

"Grandma Porly, how about you go sit down?" Wendy said after the old woman made a remark about my dress being too short (how was a knee-length dress too short?) She looked at me apologetically as she guided her still-complaining grandmother to a seat.

There were a lot of Wendy's old neighbors, all of them fawning over how grown-up she was and how they hadn't seen her since she was  _this_  small. But I didn't know anybody except for Mr. Makarov, Natsu, and Lisanna. The latter two were talking quietly in the back of the funeral hall, so I went to join them.

"Hey, Lucy," Lisanna said. "You've got good timing; my sister just texted me that arrived."

"Coach Mira?"

Lisanna nodded. "She's here with Fr— uh, Mr. Justine."

"Wow, small world. Did Mr. Freed know Wendy's mom too?"

"Well, I know Wendy through Natsu, and Mira knows her through me. Freed is close to my sister." She leaned in to whisper. "I don't know if you noticed anything, but she and Freed and a guy named Laxus are always hanging out and I think they have a love triangle going on."

"Lisanna, it's rude to gossip at someone's funeral," Natsu said.

Lisanna stood up straight again and shrugged. "I'm just saying. Actually, Mira is polyamorous, so they might all be dating, all three of them. Ugh, I don't want  _two_  brothers-in-law. And then there's Elfman with Evergreen..."

" _Lisanna_ , are you gossiping about us?" That...was definitely Miss Mira's voice. I turned around. "Oh, Lucy, you're here too." She gave me her trademark benign smile. "Don't listen to my little sister, okay? She loves to speculate about other people's love lives."

"You're worse," Lisanna pointed out.

"Hi, Miss Mira, Mr. Freed," I said, nodding at the two faces I recognized. There were two other men there, one of them blonde with a scar and the other with a creepy grin that seemed permanently glued on his face.

"Oh, this is Laxus and Bixlow," Miss Mira introduced, gesturing to the blonde and the creepy smile guy in turn. "Laxus is an electrician and Bixlow is a kindergarten teacher. Laxus and Bixlow, these are my students, Lucy and Natsu."

"Cute kids!" Bixlow exclaimed. I shrank under his stare.

"Nice to meet you," Laxus muttered.

"Where's Elfman?" Lisanna asked. "Didn't he say he was gonna come?"

"Elfman and Ever will be here soon; they got stuck in traffic. Meanwhile, we should go pay our respects. Excuse us."

"Yeah, of course."

As the four of them walked away, Lisanna said, "Now you know what kinds of people my sister is friends with. They're kinda intimidating at first, but they're good people. Not like you'll see them again after this, besides Freed of course."

"God knows I see plenty of him," I sighed. At least I wasn't captain this year, so the pressure of getting the choreography right wouldn't be as bad. But Mr. Freed was a strict and unforgiving teacher.

Then something caught my eye and I gasped. "Speaking of seeing people, Natsu—" I gripped his arm, my fingers digging into his sleeve.

"Lucy, what i— oh. Shit."

That face. Acnologia. Zeref. Whatever his name was. There he was, calmly strolling into the funeral hall with a benign smile on his face. Just when I was feeling thankful he hadn't shown up, there he was. Though my memory of his face had been too fuzzy to to give a detailed description, seeing him in person again, I'd recognize that face anywhere.

My voice sounded high and shrill to my own ears. "Natsu, I—"

"I know. I see him."

"That's the guy?" Lisanna gasped. "He looks so...normal. Oh my god."

Natsu jerked forward, and I knew he was going to clobber the guy. But he held back, removing his arm from my grip and placing it instead around my shoulder. "You're shaking," he said.

"So are you."

"You said the police were coming, right?" Lisanna said.

Natsu nodded, never taking his eyes from Zeref's form. "They should be in plainclothes."

My panicked eyes swept the room. There were several people eyeing each other and using subtle body language at each other. I hoped they were the officers; after all, not too many other people knew Zeref's face. Including Wendy, who was obliviously talking to a middle-aged woman.

But when Wendy's eye caught mine and she saw the three of us huddled in fear in the back, she snapped her head away, eyes staring resolutely forward as she accepted the woman's condolences. It was obvious she was trying not to let it get to her. But she knew something was wrong. Miss Mira was next in line to talk to Wendy, and after a few words Miss Mira was also looking back at us, following our gazes to the man walking calmly down the center aisle as if he was going to pay respects to the deceased like everyone else.

Apparently, he  _was_  going to pay his respects. The entire room grew quiet as the tense atmosphere spread to even those who didn't know who Zeref was. As if he didn't notice all the stares on his back, he stood in front of the floral display that held Grandeeney's portrait. He bowed his head, hands clasped in front of him.

Beside me, Natsu growled. I likewise clenched my teeth. Who did he think he was, pretending to mourn over a woman  _he_  killed? It was disgusting. Why weren't the police arresting him already? I knew they were in here. They needed to hurry up and arrest him before he desecrated this solemn event any further.

Then the police did act. All at once, they rushed forward, shouting, and pushed him to the ground. People screamed, the police read him his rights, his hands were roughly cuffed behind his back, and then he was being thrust through the crowd, people parting like the Red Sea as they rushed to get away from the serial killer in the police's hands.

Zeref looked back for a moment, and with his head turned away I couldn't see his expression, but it seemed like he was looking at Wendy. Then his eyes came back forward and fell on Natsu. As Natsu stood frozen and stunned beside me, Zeref looked our way and smiled gently, almost wistfully.

And then he was taken away.


	18. Truth and Trials

I tried to push Zeref's face from my mind. That gentle smile, the benign look on his face as the police apprehended him, the way he just  _looked_  at Natsu. The way it had seemed like he was looking at me, too.

It was scary. I was scared. But he was behind bars now, and I could only hope that he'd be tried for all his crimes. The evidence sure added up, but knowing the way the judicial system worked in real life, sometimes evidence wasn't enough for a conviction. I highly doubted he'd be able to get away with it considering everything stacked against him, but there was always that sliver of doubt hanging on my consciousness.

So instead, I tried to involve myself back in everyday life. I'd been so involved in Natsu's issues lately that I was neglecting other issues. Important issues.

Of course, one could call me a busybody, but my overprotective instinct led me to seek out yet another friend's crush for a little talk. I did have Levy's reluctant permission to give him a talking-to — so long as I didn't overdo it, she said — but that didn't make it any less nosy.

"Gajeel!" Nobody else had that kind of long, frizzy hair, and sure enough, when he turned around I could see the piercings and his usual stern expression. "I need to talk to you for a sec."

"Bunny Girl," he said. "What's up?"

I glanced down at my tshirt, which had a graphic outline of a rabbit on it. Gajeel and his weird nicknames. Anyway. "It's about Levy."

He frowned. "What's wrong with Shrimp?"

"Nothing's wrong, per se, but...well, first of all, has she talked to you about what's been bugging her lately?"

He hummed in thought. "I've heard some things, but she didn't seem to wanna talk about it so I didn't bring it up." He shrugged.

"Well, there's that stuff, and then there's you."

"What about me?"

"You two are friends, right?"

"Somethin' like that."

"But you go on dates. And not just platonic ones."

His eyes narrowed. "I don't see how that's any of your business."

He had a point, but I wasn't going to let it drop quite yet. "She's my best friend, so it  _is_  my business. Especially when she admits that she's getting tired of playing guessing games with you about what you two are to each other."

He pursed his lips but didn't respond.

"Look, I can't tell you what to do, but at the very least, when she does decide to talk to you about it, give her a clear answer. No more of this ambiguity. Maybe that's how you like to do things because you're easily embarrassed or whatever, but even Gray managed to give a definitive answer when it came down to it. I expect you to do the same, whatever your feelings. Or I'll sic Erza on you. Understood?"

Gajeel's face visibly paled. "You wouldn't."

"I would," I said, crossing my arms. "Are we clear?"

He scowled and turned away. "I don't see what there is to worry about anyway. It's not like—" He paused. "Well, that Shrimp is all right."

"Just all right?"

He didn't answer.

"See? You do things like this. I assume you're a bit more forthcoming around Levy, but even she can get frustrated when you're silent on things that are important. Well, I warned you, as is my duty as her nosy friend."

"Warning well taken," he grumbled. "All I gotta do is tell Shrimp I like 'er, right?"

"Only if it's the truth."

He gave me a look. "You think I'm a liar?"

I smiled a little. "Well, if it's the truth, then I'm happy for you two. Just make sure she knows it, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Nice talkin' to ya, Bunny Girl."

"I have a name. We both have names."

"I'll use names if I feel like using names. Later."

I chuckled to myself as he walked away. Levy sure knew how to pick 'em. And I felt a bit better now that I'd talked to him personally. In a weird roundabout way, he'd just admitted to liking Levy romantically, and that put my heart at ease.

 

Miss Mira would kill me if she found out, but I skipped cheer practice to go see my second ever soccer game with Juvia. It was almost nostalgic; what were the odds that the first game of the season would be against Sabertooth?

"Shouldn't we sit closer up?" I asked as I followed Juvia up the bleachers to the same spot we'd sat last time.

"Juvia likes this better. Does it bother Lucy?"

"No, but the boys might complain."

"Natsu and Gray should be focused on the game anyway," Juvia said, seating herself with an air of finality.

I laughed and sat next to her.

"Lucy!" I was expecting someone to shout for me, but I wasn't expecting it to be Loke.

I sighed. "Give me a sec," I said to Juvia, heading down the bleachers. "What is it?" I said. "Where's the rest of the team?"

"In the locker room still, having pep talks or whatever. I escaped," Loke said. A smile spread across his face. "It was fate that brought me out here to see you," he drawled.

"Cut the crap, Loke."

He wrinkled his nose. "You never play along. Anyway, some of the boys are getting together after the game and I'm in charge of making reservations. So if you want to come along..."

"Why would I come? It's a team thing, isn't it?"

Loke wagged a finger. "Not quite. Natsu, Gray, and I are going, of course. But Gajeel is coming too, also Wendy, Lisanna, and two of the boys from Sabertooth."

"Sabertooth?"

"Turns out their star players lost relatives, too," Loke said. Wait, so that Eucliffe and Cheney that I'd heard so much about were also involved in this whole Zeref thing, too? Just how many people in this town had he killed? "And they're bringing that Minerva girl. I'm sure you know her."

I scowled. "Sure do. We don't get along."

"Don't blame you; our schools are rivals."

"It goes a little deeper than that." Minerva wasn't exactly the nicest girl around. Though she  _was_  hot. But that was her only redeeming quality as far as I was concerned.

"So? Are you coming or not?"

"Of course not." Especially not with Minerva there.

Loke sighed. "Well, I tried."

"Shouldn't you be, I dunno... _with your team_  right now?"

"Relax. I always play hookie before games; they're used to it."

"You're hopeless."

"By the way, the trial's next weekend."

"What? Oh." I hadn't imagined that Zeref would try to plead anything but guilty, given all the evidence against him. A key in his house had unlocked an old warehouse where the mummifying process had taken place. Gajeel's father was one of the bodies. There were probably a dozen counts of murder held against him from all those years ago. And so far, he hadn't denied a thing.

But he apparently still wanted to go to trial rather than enter some sort of plea deal. I could only hope that this would end with him having a stricter sentence, but if he was doing this at his lawyer's recommendation, it might be the other way around.

A cold shiver ran down my spine as I remembered those smiling eyes of his at the funeral. He sincerely gave me the creeps.

"Earth to Lucy~" Loke was waving a hand in front of my face.

I blinked to clear my mind. "Sorry, I was zoning out," I said.

He frowned. "I noticed. Everything all right?"

"Yeah, it's fine," I said, though even I could tell my voice wasn't convincing.

"You don't look fine."

I gave Loke a weak smile. My dad wasn't having any luck finding another well-paying job, and the Magnolia location was closing for good in a few weeks. If he didn't find something in the next couple days, he would probably just have to take the Hargeon position before he became completely unemployed. On top of everything else going on, it was something I just didn't want to think about.

"There's just a lot going on," I finally answered. That was probably the best way to sum up the chaos that was my brain at the moment.

Loke nodded. "Take it easy, all right? Natsu's worried about you. You haven't talked about the move at all, and it's been how many weeks now?"

"Don't read my mind. What, are you Natsu's messenger or something?" I griped. "Is that why you're out here?"

That playboy grin made its appearance again. "Actually, I–"

"LOKE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Gray was storming over, his face furious.

Loke gave an exaggerated sigh. "Ah, the captain calls. Later, Lucy." He winked and ran off, brushing away Gray's lecturing with that dismissive hand of his.

I returned to Juvia unable to give any explanation for what he'd called me down for. Loke was hard to understand. Sometimes I wasn't sure even Loke understood himself, and I sure as hell had no clue what he was thinking half the time. Trying to decipher his reasoning was a task I just couldn't be bothered to take up. When it came to Loke, sometimes it was just better not to think about things.

So I put his concern out of my mind and focused on the game. Which ended up not being much of a help, because Fairy Tail lost their first game of the season.

"Good job. You played hard," I told Natsu when I met him afterwards. His usually spiky hair was damp and matted to his forehead by sweat. His effort was obvious, but he was still downcast.

"We lost," he said bleakly.

"You did your best."

"I wasn't on my game today," Natsu said. He stretched his arms above his head. "Well, I'll make up for it next time."

"That's the spirit," I said, nudging him and grinning.

"Loke told me you're not coming later."

I narrowed my eyes. "So it  _was_  you who sent him out to talk to me."

"Oh, no, he always does that," Natsu said. How hadn't Loke been kicked off the team yet?

"Why are you getting together with them anyway?" I asked.

Natsu shrugged. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other at court and all, y'know? Might as well get to know each other a little or something. They were the ones who suggested it."

"You mean Sting and Rogue?"

"Yeah."

"Well, anyway, have fun I guess."

"Oh, and uhh...Lucy?"

"Mm?"

"Good luck." He wasn't smiling. I didn't know what Loke told him, but at this point he had to know that I was having a rough time. I felt bad for not telling him about it much, but I honestly didn't have anything to say. Maybe that's the same feeling Levy had about the bankruptcy and Gajeel, and even Natsu in that first week after he heard the news about his father. It's not that he didn't want to tell us everything that was happening; he just didn't have the words to describe it yet.

I stepped forward and pressed my head against his shoulder. As if on instinct, his arms wrapped around to pull me closer so I was comfortably resting against his chest. We stayed like that for a little while, just breathing.

"You're going to need to touch up your hair soon," Natsu noted, his voice rumbly in his chest.

"You look great today too, Natsu," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I don't mean it like that. Your roots are getting long, and the color's fading."

"Yeah. I need to re-dye it."

"Want me to help?"

"My hair's pretty different from yours, Natsu. Would you even know how to handle dying hair this long?" Not to mention I had to bleach my roots, which was always a pain.

"I can learn," he insisted. "We both dye our hair; might as well do it together."

I laughed. "Sounds like a rather frustrating date. Let's do it."

"How about when you come over Friday?" Natsu suggested.

I pulled back to smile up at him. "Fine by me. You should probably go home now. You'll need a nice, long shower before you're ready to go anywhere in public." I laughed as Natsu protested in defense of his cleanliness, but when Makarov and Wendy found us, he was forced to say goodbye and go home.

As he disappeared from view, my wave slowed and my smile faded. I'd been reminded of a lot of things today that I didn't want to be reminded of. The move, the trial. And I knew that if I went home, the silence would stifle me, trapping me in my own mind until I thought myself in circles. So I just stood there and people-watched as the sun went down.


	19. Dates and Danger

"Lu."

"Mm?"

"Lu, I invited you over for a reason."

I closed the book I was reading. "This is really good," I said. "I'm only on the third page and I'm already intrigued."

Levy smiled. "I know. That's why I said you should read it. But I didn't mean to read it  _now,_ " she said.

"Okay, okay. What's up?" I was lying on my stomach on her bed, and I rolled over to sit up, dangling my feet over the edge.

"I thought you should know, since you're one of my best friends and all..."

"Did something happen?"

"Uh. With Gajeel, I..." She trailed off and blushed.

"You and Gajeel...?" I prompted. I started to smile. I had a feeling where this was going.

"Well, I finally talked to him, and I don't know if it's something you said to him, but he didn't avoid the subject this time. And we're, uhh...we're dating now. For real."

I squealed, clapping my hands. My heart felt full. "That's awesome, Levy! Congratulations!"

She blushed dark red. "Thanks. It's kind of on the DL, though. Like, it's not a secret, but we're not exactly going to go around telling people, y'know?"

"Sort of like Juvia and Gray?" I said.

Levy laughed. "Except Juvia's so obvious. I'm pretty sure everyone knew they got together even without her saying anything."

"I know they're quiet about it because Gray's shy about romance, but what's your reason?"

Levy curled a lock of hair around her finger. "I guess Gajeel's pretty shy about these things, too. You know how he is. It's not something he asked of me so much as just something I want to do for his sake. And neither of us are the type who like getting attention. So I'm just telling our friends, and other than that, people will have to find out over time."

"Basically, I shouldn't go bragging to everyone that one of my best friends finally hooked up with her guy, right?"

"Lucy!" The red spread to her ears as I laughed. "We're not like  _that_ ," she mumbled.

"Yet," I added, making her blush deepen.

"Oh, shush. Say what you want about 'hooking up' but it's not like you and Natsu haven't used going to the bathroom as an excuse to go make out in the stairwell during class."

Now it was my turn to blush. "How'd you know about that?" I demanded. "That only happened twice, so how...?"

"Gajeel saw it," Levy said, smirking. "You're lucky it wasn't Gray or Loke, or everyone would know by now."

I covered my cheeks with my hands in an effort to cool them down. "Wow. This is embarrassing."

"Little Miss Class President making out in the stairwell with her boyfriend," Levy sang.

"Don't you dare tell a soul," I said. "And I swear it was only twice..."

"You're keeping count?"

My face burned. "Fine. Whatever. You win this time, Levy McGarden."

"I always win," she bragged.

"So, who else have you told about Gajeel?"

"Just you and Erza so far. Jet was busy, and I want to tell him and Droy at the same time, so I'm telling them when we hang out tomorrow. I was going to call Juvia later. I'm still not sure how I'm going to tell my parents..."

"Yeah, that'll be awkward."

"Tell me about it," Levy sighed. "The whole business situation is weird. Well, it doesn't affect Gajeel and my relationship directly, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"You just have to never break up or it'll be awkward between the parents."

Levy laughed. "I hope we won't any time soon. We've been half-dating for long enough now that it's safe to say our relationship is stable. The only difference is that now I've got some commitment out of him."

"That's true. It's been how long now? A year?"

"Ish. Not quite. Our first date was...when? November? December?"

"You can't even remember?" I said, laughing.

"I'm still kind of out of it," Levy confessed. She smiled, putting her hands to her cheeks with a dreamy expression. "I'm so happy it feels like a dream."

I tackled-hugged her and we both tumbled to the floor laughing. "You're too cute," I said, squeezing my arms around her shoulders.

"You always say that."

"And I mean it every time."

She returned the hug, wrapping her short arms around my back. "Thanks, Lu. I owe you one."

"I didn't even do anything."

"Still. Thanks."

 

The trial came all too quickly. Natsu declined to testify, wanting to watch the entire proceedings in court, so I was their witness for what happened in the funeral home. I wasn't sure I was ready to face Zeref, but I  _did_  want to testify against him, so I took that chance.

They had me wait outside in the hallway so whatever else was said in court wouldn't influence my testimony. I wasn't sure what the big deal was, since all I had to do was confirm that Zeref was the one who gave Natsu those cards, and that had already been confirmed by police.

I was called to the witness stand. Looking out at the crowd of people sitting in the courtroom, I found Natsu in one of the front rows, Mr. Makarov and Uncle Atlas on either side. Lisanna and Chelia were with Wendy. Even Sting and Rogue were in the row behind them with their families; so Loke's claim that they were involved in this were true.

Once I was seated at the witness stand, I swore to tell the truth, and then the questions started about the day I first saw Zeref after Igneel's funeral.

"Are you sure it was this man you saw in the funeral home that day?"

"Yes," I said definitively. I looked over at Zeref, whose looked like he was zoning out. "Yes, for sure that's him."

"How can you be so certain? You told the police that your memory of his face was very vague."

"It was, but both Natsu and I picked this guy out of a lineup of faces after someone reported him based on the sketches. My memory may have been vague on details, but I know what I saw."

"And you say you saw him give the cards to Mr. Dragneel?"

"Yes. The note was mixed in with the pile. It wasn't until Natsu had started looking through the cards that he noticed the note, and by then he was gone."

"Did you see what the note said?"

My eyes darted upward to think. "Um, it was something along the lines of, 'Wendy's mom is next,' and was signed with...uhh...Acknowledge Bra?"

"It was something similar, yes."

"Acne Lodge?"

"Miss Heartfilia."

"It's a hard name to say."

"I am aware."

"I remember when they told us his real name, I wondered why he didn't just use that one. Both are rare, but Zane Fluff is so much easier to say than Acro Log Fee."

" _Miss Heartfilia._ "

"Wait, sorry. Z Referee."

"Miss Heartfilia, this is a serious case. If you cannot answer the questions seriously, you may be dismissed from the witness stand."

"Sorry."

Not that they were going to ask me any more questions anyway. Might as well get my digs in while I could, no matter if I was making the court people's lives more difficult. I couldn't care less that this point. Zeref had already taken so much from Natsu, and so much from me too, all the fear and pain he caused. The least I could do was use my one moment of power over him to mock him in some way.

And honestly, his names  _were_  hard to say. What in the world was "Acnologia" supposed to be, anyway?

I held my head high under the judge's glare. Zeref at least seemed to have stopped zoning out, and was regarding me with an incredulous expression. I stared him down for a moment. I wouldn't let him scare me anymore.

Even though I told myself that, my heart was pounding. If I hadn't made those jokes, I probably would've just leapt over there to punch him in the face. I had no clue how Natsu managed to be so calm when it was his turn, but somehow he kept his cool despite seeing his father's killer right in front of him. Meanwhile I wasn't even directly affected, and I was making jokes to keep myself from going into a rage. Ironic, really.

They asked me a few more questions, the defense declined to question me, and that was that. Zeref wasn't watching me anymore, so I turned and left the witness stand to go wait back out in the hallway. The security guard by the door gave me a smirk as I passed through. At least  _someone_  had appreciated my jokes about Zeref's name. It was hard to come up with all those on the spot.

"Hey!"

Behind me, I heard shouts from the door I'd just exited, and I turned around to see what was happening. The door hadn't closed just yet, and the security guard was gone, so I stopped it from closing with my foot and opened it up to peek inside the courtroom.

Shouting everywhere. Security guards ran into the center of the courtroom where Zeref had somehow gotten free of his restraints. How had he managed to get so far in the few seconds my back was turned? He was marching with purpose across the courtroom, taking down the startled lawyers in his path. My heart stopped in my chest as I realized where he was going. His aim was obvious: Natsu.


	20. Bonds and Breath

"Natsu!" I screamed, pushing past a security guard. Everything was blurry, but my eyes focused on Natsu's face, the only thing still clear to me among all the chaos. He looked surprised, but his brows were furrowed in that determined manner I'd seen so many times. He was ready for a fight. And apparently so was Zeref, because the serial killer was lunging toward Natsu, somehow breaking through the crowd of people both fleeing and trying to restrain him.

Natsu put his hands up just in time to partially protect himself from Zeref swiping at him. A red streak across the side of Natsu's neck was left behind, carved out by Zeref's sharp fingernails. Crying out, I tried once again to push against the security guards to reach Natsu. I didn't know how this had happened, but I had to help him.

"Lucy, don't." It was Mr. Makarov's voice. He'd found me, and was holding me back. I should've been able to push past someone so much shorter than me, but Mr. Makarov was strong, his hands gripping my wrists so tightly I felt like my bones would break.

"But Natsu—"

"Don't put yourself in danger. The police are handling it."

He was right, of course. After that one swipe at Natsu, Zeref had been restrained by cops. All I could see of him now was a crowd of blue uniforms pressing Zeref's body to the courtroom floor. But he'd broken free from his cuffs once, so couldn't he do it again? Even if my brain knew that the danger had passed as quickly as it came, the adrenaline rushing through my veins told me I had to go protect Natsu.

Thankfully, Natsu was brought to me instead. The police escorted him toward the very door I'd been about to leave from, and his body crashed into mine in a tight embrace.

"Thank god," I breathed, my face pressed into his shirt. Somehow still entwined, we were herded out of the courtroom, away from Zeref and into safety.

"Stay here until things calm down," someone said, though I didn't know who. Everything was still spinning, and all I could see were vague shapes. The only thing concrete was the warmth radiating from Natsu's body held tightly to mine.

A woman near us was talking. "I knew it was suspicious. He was so quiet this whole time, so cooperative even though he knew he'd end up with a life sentence like this. Not really sure what he thought he could accomplish with that little stunt, though."

"Maybe he thought he could get in one last one before he was locked up forever," suggested her companion.

The first woman quickly shushed her. "Don't  _say_  something like that," she hissed. But it was too late; I'd already heard it, and the words made me squeeze Natsu a little tighter.

"Is this what they call the suspension bridge effect?" Natsu said, adjusting his hold around my shoulders.

I looked up to give him the most offended expression I could muster at the moment. "Natsu, we're already dating," I said, a little breathlessly. My heart was still pounding, and my head dizzy. Honestly, I was surprised I could speak at all.

"Yeah, but all of a sudden I really want to kiss you and never let go."

"That  _was_  scary," I said. What I didn't say was that I felt the exact same thing. My arms felt paralyzed, as if I let go of him now something bad might happen. "Maybe later when things calm down and we're not in front of so many people."

"After this, he'll definitely be locked up forever, right?"

I nodded. "He has to be."

"They'll probably want to talk to me even more now that this happened," Natsu said.

"Is your neck okay?" I pulled back so I could reach for the cut on the side of his neck. It was a red streak, and looked like it went fairly deep, but it wasn't bleeding very much.

"It stings a little," Natsu confessed, reaching one of his own hands up to touch it gingerly.

"He's already left so many marks on you," I said. "Why did he need to leave another one? Hasn't he don't enough to you already?"

"It's not easy to break out of handcuffs. I don't know what he wanted to do, but he put a lot of effort into doing it."

"I'm sorry, Natsu. Maybe it's because I was making fun of his names."

"Nah. He was already planning it."

I still felt guilty.

"Natsu? Lucy?"

We both turned to Mr. Makarov, who was standing nearby with a troubled yet somehow calm expression.

"Let's go sit down for a little while while the police sort this out, okay?"

I looked at Natsu, who nodded.

I was forced to let go of him so they could look at his neck. Even though it wasn't bleeding, he apparently would need a couple stitches, so he was taken away from me to go to the hospital. I wanted to go with him, but honestly, I was just so exhausted and a place like the hospital, which so often reminded me of my mother, would only be even more draining. In the meantime, Mr. Makarov took me to his house where I waited in Natsu's room for him to come home.

Natsu came home still feeling groggy from the car. I jumped up from his bed and ran over to greet him as he entered the room.

"Did you get your stitches okay?" I said, twisting my body to peer around at the side of his neck. The spot where the wound had been was covered in a gauze bandage so I couldn't see. Perhaps it was for the best; stitches were a little creepy-looking sometimes.

"I have to be careful not to stretch that side of my neck," Natsu said. "It's gonna be a pain, honestly." He sighed in frustration and sat down heavily on the floor.

"I hope it doesn't scar," I said.

"Yeah, well..." He reached up absently to touch the gauze with his fingertips. Letting out another long breath, he let his arm drop to his side. "I'm just really tired of this. I don't even want to go to the court anymore. Zeref might try to make a scene again."

"I don't think they'd let him get away with it a second time," I said.

"Mr. Makarov said he might go to a mental institution instead of jail," Natsu said.

My eyes widened. "Really? Because of what happened, or...?"

"Well, it might've happened anyway. But they're putting him in solitary for the rest of the trial so he doesn't hurt other inmates like he tried to hurt me."

"He didn't just  _try_  to hurt you, he actually  _did_ hurt you," I pointed out.

Natsu dismissed that's notion. "It's just a scratch," he insisted.

"A scratch that required stitches."

"Not sure why. It was hardly bleeding; didn't hit an artery or anything."

"Natsu, you've got to be more careful with your body. Don't just brush things off all the time. If you're hurt, you're hurt. Denying it only makes it worse."

"I'd tell you to kiss it and make it all better, but there's this stupid bandage over it," Natsu said.

I blushed, a pleasant warmth in my stomach. "You're really okay if you still have the energy to make stupid comments like that," I said. I kissed the side of his neck, the uninjured one. "There. Close enough."

He looked at me with that wide smile of his. "Do it again. I liked that. It tickles."

"Natsu, you do realize that Mr. Makarov is— oh, don't  _pout_ , you know I'm right."

"Don't worry, kids, I'm not listening," came Mr. Makarov's voice shouted from somewhere else in the house.

I looked at Natsu, who was still pouting. "See?"

He lay back and made himself comfortable on the bed. "Whatever," he said. "Here." He patted the space next to him, one arm outstretched. His eyes were smiling as he watched me expectantly.

Smiling a little, I crawled next to him and we settled into each other's arms, just lying there and breathing together.

"I want to kiss you," Natsu said after a while, his voice low, "but I'd have to turn my neck a lot."

Shifting, I pushed myself up from the bed and leaned over him. Taking a moment to make sure my hair wasn't in the way, I bent down and kissed him. "There," I said. "I did it for you."

"Can you do it again?"

I rolled my eyes but complied. "Don't get too carried away," I said between kisses. "You're injured, you know."

"By the way," he said, "Jellal caught us when we snuck out of class the other day."

I froze, pushing myself up with arms straight. "Again?!" I cried.

"Again?"

Sighing, I fell onto the bed next to him. "According to Levy, Gajeel saw us making out in the stairwell once."

"Damn."

"Yeah." I looked at him pointedly. "Never again, Natsu. Never. Again."

"What?" he whined. "No, come on, it was just twice."

"Out of what, three times we've snuck out to meet during class? We apparently suck at this. We'd better stop before a teacher catches us next time."

"Orrrr we just need to get better at it," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Despite myself, I laughed. "You're impossible. Oh, speaking of Gajeel, did he tell you about him and Levy?"

"Wait, did they finally...?"

"They're going out. For real."

The most exasperated noise came from Natsu's mouth. "Finally! Took that lug nut long enough. God."

I giggled. "Guess Gajeel didn't tell you. According to Levy, he's even more shy about romance than Gray."

"If that's the case, I'll have to tease him mercilessly," Natsu said evilly.

"I won't stop you," I said, grinning.

The sound of the front door opening and closing with a slam brought me out of my little Natsu bubble, and I looked toward the bedroom door to listen as Uncle Atlas and Wendy announced their presence, as well as the arrival of dinner. I sat up to let Natsu hop to his feet.

"Pizza, awesome," he said, running for the door. He stopped, turned around, and came back to grab my hand and drag me along with him. "I don't want to give you up," he said, "but Wendy misses you, so you have to play with her a lot tonight, okay?"

I nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Of course. I miss her too."

Of course, I had to wait for Uncle Atlas to quit monopolizing both children before I could really talk to Wendy. But he was staying in a hotel in town, so he eventually left, and Wendy and I went to her room to catch up on all we'd missed about each other during the past couple hectic weeks. No Natsu allowed, of course.

"By the way, Natsu never answers when I ask him about you moving. Did it get canceled?" she asked.

My mood instantly sobered. I shook my head. "No. It's still happening, I think. Daddy hasn't said anything about it, which means he hasn't gotten a job in Magnolia. Which means we'll have to move to Hargeon."

"There's still some hope though, right?" she said, reaching for my hand. "I don't want you to leave."

I forced a smile as I looked at her. "I don't want to leave either," I said.

 

When I got home from school a few days later, I was surprised to find my dad already home waiting for me. My stomach dropped. I knew what this was about. I was surprised we hadn't had this talk a week ago, but I wasn't complaining. If anything, I wanted it to be postponed longer. And longer, and longer, until it was all but forgotten. Unfortunately, reality was never so kind.

"Lucy. Come, sit."

I slipped off my shoes, slowly, and sat down on the other end of the couch. I couldn't meet his eyes.

"I'm sure you know what this is about, Lucy."

I nodded once. "Moving," I said, my voice cracking a little as the word left my mouth.

"Yes and no," he said.

I finally looked at him. What did that mean?

"As expected, the company is closing. It actually happens at the end of this week; they postponed it a little. So after this week, that job will no longer exist."

So far it was all as I expected.

"I thought about it, and like I said, it will be hard for you to transfer schools in the middle of your senior year, not to mention it will complicate your college applications. Which, now that all that business with Zeref is over, you  _will_  focus on them properly, right?"

I nodded dutifully. I'd forgotten all about those in the recent excitement. Oops.

"A friend recommended me to a bank that was looking for an assistant for their CEO. Not just a coffee-getter, but someone who could actually get some work done as well. I have the experience, but the salary was too low for the work. Criminally low, really. But then they promised that if I live up to my resume, I might be considered for management-level promotions. It wouldn't be for a couple years, but if they come through with their promise, I think it'd be worth it to stay in Magnolia and try to work my way up in a new bank. Plus it means you can stay at Fairy Tail..."

Tears. By the time I felt them coming, they were already spilling down my cheeks, so I just opened up my mouth and sobbed like a child.

"Daddy," I cried, voice nasally and sniffling and wiping furiously at the tears on my cheeks. "Daddy, thank you. Thank you."

After a childhood of feeling unloved by him, and then his coldness after my mother's loss, his disastrous attempts at reconciling...he'd finally done something right. For the first time in my life, I really  _felt_  his love for me. Obviously our relationship would never be perfect after all he'd done, but he was trying, and just this once, that was enough.

True to character, Daddy didn't hug me or try to console me. He just sat there, awkwardly looking away and nudging a tissue box a little closer. Had he brought that out here ahead of time, knowing I'd cry? "We still have to move," he said. "We can't keep the two-bedroom. We can stay in this building, but it'll be one bed, one bath. Maybe even in the basement, since those are cheaper. It'd be nice if we could still have an upper floor just for the windows, but no promises."

"Same building would be easiest, for moving purposes," I said, nodding. I sniffled. "Really, thank you. I was so worried I'd have to move and leave all my friends, and then college applications would get so complicated too."

"I had to think long and hard about it, but I couldn't uproot us so close to your graduation. This is what's best. There's no point in thanking me; you'll be moving out soon enough, and then a two-bedroom would be excessive anyway. Might as well just stay here instead of moving cities just so we can keep living in a bigger place. Speaking of you leaving, I can't help you with tuition."

"I know. You've told me a million times."

He frowned. "Well, that's that. Any questions?"

I shook my head.

"Then we're done here. You can go tell all your friends. I'll be in the office."

"Thank you, Daddy. Really."

I sent a flurry of texts to my friends, and soon I had a whole crowd of them asking to come over and celebrate. They all showed up in front of my apartment and tackled me with hugs as soon as I opened the door.

"Lucy! You can stay!"

"I'm so happy, Lucy!"

"All that worrying for nothing."

"Shut up, Gajeel. You know you were worried, too."

"Pipe down out there!" my dad shouted, silencing all of us. We looked at each other and broke out in laughter.

"Come to my room," I said, ushering them all inside. I didn't think there had ever been so many people in the apartment at once before. Levy, Erza, and Juvia were all here, and Gajeel, Gray, Jellal, even Loke (I hadn't even texted him, so one of the guys must've picked him up on the way over. Whatever, I didn't mind.) And, of course, Wendy and Natsu.

"Cool, we get to see Lucy's room," Leo said as I pushed them all toward my bedroom.

"Hurry up before my dad gets mad. And who invited you, anyway?"

"Sorry, he was at my place when you texted," Gray said. "I didn't think you'd mind though."

"It's fine," I sighed.

"Yes, Lucy approves of me!" Loke cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. Just go inside."

Wendy tugged on my t-shirt. "Lucy, I'm really glad you can stay in Magnolia," she said, smiling up at me.

"Me too," I said, returning the smile.

Then she skipped ahead and grabbed my bedroom door before I could walk through it. "You have thirty seconds," she said, glancing conspiratorially between Natsu and me. "Starting...now!" She slammed the door shut.

Natsu and I looked at each other, confused. There were also some confused shouts from inside my bedroom and I heard some people trying to get past Wendy, but nobody came through.

"Twenty-five!" Wendy shouted.

Natsu and I looked at each other again. "But my dad..."

"Don't care." Natsu attacked me, and I gave in, laughing.

"Halt!" Erza burst through the door, immediately splitting us apart. "Natsu, I know you're happy she can stay, but you have to share Lucy."

"I don't want to share," he bit back, earning himself a sound smack on the shoulder.

"Don't hurt him, Erza," Juvia said from behind her, grinning.

I let myself be dragged into the room among the chatter and bickering of my best friends. I was just too happy. I actually got to stay in Magnolia and graduate with the rest of my friends here, and they were as excited about it as I was. After all that stress and worry, everything went well in the end. I was so filled with happiness it felt like I would burst.


	21. Future and Forever

July 7.

Cold rain fell around us as I stood under Natsu's umbrella, the two of us side-by-side was we stared down at Igneel's grave. It was just one small plaque in a sea of grass and headstones, but the name engraved on its surface was like proof that he had existed, that he'd mattered. The love he'd given Natsu was now being passed on to me.

I tightened my hold on Natsu's arm.

He glanced down at me. "Are you cold?"

I gave him a look. "Natsu, it's summer."

"And raining."

"I'm fine. I'm just thinking about things."

"What kinds of things?"

"The way time passes."

"You're a weirdo."

"Yeah, yeah. By the way, it's almost noon."

He looked surprised. "Oh. Already? We should get going," he said, stretching his free arm.

"We can stay a little longer if you're not done."

"No, I said everything I need to say." He looked down at the plaque and smiled a bit. "Even if it's only like this, I'm glad I can visit him once in a while." He stared for a moment longer before we walked away.

Last time it'd been just the two of us visiting my mom, but this year we had two graves to visit. My mom's was in a cemetery on the other side of town, closer to our old mansion. Natsu and I were borrowing Mr. Makarov's car for the day, and I hopped into the driver's seat, wiping off the water droplets that had dripped onto my arm as I got in.

"Ready?" I asked Natsu as he stowed the umbrella by his feet on the passenger side.

"I did take dramamine," he reminded me.

"Just making sure," I said, shifting the car into drive. "What are you going to do when you don't have Wendy to remind you to take motion sickness medicine whenever you go out places?"

"But I still have you."

I sighed. "Natsu, just because our universities are both in Crocus doesn't mean I'll be there to nag at you every day. We're both going to make our own friends, and what then? You're going to throw up on them?"

He scowled. "Lucy's being mean," he whined.

"I guess I'm just worried," I admitted. "Yeah, we're in the same city, but we're still going our separate ways. I'm going to some fancy Ivy League for business and you're—"

"And astronomy," Natsu added in, grinning.

I laughed. "Shh, that's a secret," I said. "Anyway, I'm going to some fancy Ivy League for business  _and astronomy_ , and you're on the other side of Crocus taking way too many classes..."

"It'll be fun," Natsu said.

"You say that now, but you're definitely taking too many classes."

"They all looked so cool. I couldn't pick just five."

"But  _seven_? I still can't believe you're actually allowed to take that many."

"I'm taking advantage. Jellal isn't even  _going_  to university. Go nag him instead," Natsu grumbled.

"He's just taking a gap year." I sighed. "He and Erza will be separated. Gray and Juvia are going to the same school, but it's out in the middle of nowhere. Then Gajeel's staying in Magnolia for tech school, and who knows where Levy will end up transferring after community college—"

"Lucy. Breathe."

I pressed my lips together. I didn't trust myself not to burst out into more rambling. Everyone had assured me that we would still be friends no matter where we ended up or how long we had to spend apart, but I was still so reluctant to leave this little family I'd found for myself. And today was a day when my emotions tended to run wild regardless, which made the impending separation seem even more foreboding. It had been a month, but the sights and sounds of our high school graduation still felt fresh in my mind. It was both exciting and terrifying.

"Hey, Natsu?"

"Mm?"

"We'll be okay, right?"

A pause. Then, slowly: "Lucy?"

"I don't mean anything by it," I said quickly. "I...I don't know what I'm asking. This is the first time in a while that I've been so afraid of the future. Not since we almost moved last fall. I can't know for sure what will happen next, and that scares me."

"Just think of it as an adventure."

"How?"

"We've had all sorts of adventures until now. Eating food, making food, watching food shows..."

"I highly doubt those count as adventures," I said, laughing.

"Okay, there were other things too. We've been having all sorts of fun adventures ever since we met, and we only got closer, right? This is just a new adventure, that's all. We'll be fine. You, me, Erza, everybody. Maybe our adventures aren't the same thing anymore, but we can still support each other and stuff. 'Cause that's what people do when they love each other." He paused a moment to gauge my reaction. "That's what you want to hear, right?"

I nodded, trying not to tear up while I was still driving. "Yeah. Thanks, Natsu. I just had a moment of weakness."

"It's not weakness. It's strength."

"Well, that's one way to think about it," I said. "I know it'll be fine, but I can't help but worry. It's just...it's more fun when we're together. But we're about to be apart."

"Nah, you worry too much. Ah! Don't miss the turn!"

"Sorry!" The wheels screeched against the pavement as I took a hard right.

He hissed through his teeth. "Jeez, pay attention, Luce."

"I said sorry. It's not like I almost crashed or anything, it was just a sharp turn."

"Urgh, I'm gonna be sick..."

"Not now, Natsu. We aren't even there yet."

"Hurry up."

"I'm trying."

"Oh, make a left here."

"Wait, what?" I stopped the car at the stop sign. His face was blank. "No, we go straight."

"Trust me. Take a left."

"Okay..." I obliged, letting him guide me through a couple back streets until he told me to stop.

"Park here," he said.

" _Park?_ "

"It's lunchtime. We gotta stop to eat."

Well, we  _were_  stopped outside a cafe. I found a parking spot and Natsu hopped out the passenger seat, bringing the umbrella over to my side of the car.

"If you wanted to eat lunch in between, you could've just said so first," I scolded. "You had me really confused for a couple minutes there."

He scratched his head. "Well, they wanted it to be a surprise for some godforsaken reason..."

"Wait. They?"

The bell on the door jingled as we entered the cafe. I stepped inside first so Natsu could close the umbrella, ducking into the dim light and dry air. When my eyes adjusted, I was somehow both surprised and completely  _not_  surprised to see all my friends already seated inside.

"Lucy! You guys made it!" Levy exclaimed, jumping up and running to hug me.

"What's all this for?" I asked Erza, who was seated closest to the door.

She just smiled. "We didn't want you and Natsu to be all alone on a day like this. Maybe we weren't invited, but we still wanted to be here for support. And we thought surprising you with food was the way to do it."

"But if it's for both of us, how come I'm the only one being surprised?" I said as I sat down. Natsu was still struggling with the umbrella, and I was about to get back up to help him but it looked like Juvia was already on her way to take care of it.

"It's because Jellal can't keep his trap shut," Gajeel said, sending Jellal a scowl.

"It wasn't on purpose," Jellal defended.

"It all worked out, so it's fine," Erza said smoothly. "Now, the bill is on us, so you can order whatever you want. Our treat."

"But I—"

"Just think of it as a going-away present," Levy said helpfully.

"And I'm sure we  _all_  know how much anxiety you've been having about everyone going different places," Gray drawled, annoyance dripping from his voice.

"She ranted to you too?" Gajeel said. He sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Jeez, Bunny Girl. You're worse than Levy when it comes to overthinking things."

"Hey!"

"I know," I sighed. "Thanks, everyone. Really."

Natsu came back with the umbrella finally closed. He started listing off his order. "So I want a burger, cheese and bacon, ketchup, no pickles, side of fries. Iced tea. And for an appetizer I'll have those empanadas, the spicy kind. And can I have another order of—"

"Slow down, Natsu," Levy cried, panicking as she scribbled it all down. "I can't write that fast."

"Are you really going to eat all that?" Erza said skeptically.

Natsu plopped himself on a seat, grinning. "Don't you guys know me by now. Of course I'll eat it all!" He laughed loudly as the guys all started to protest that he couldn't do this to them, they said he could order whatever he wanted but they didn't mean he could order  _everything_ , how much money did he think they had? I just smiled, slowly. That was  _so_  Natsu. And while he was at it...

"I'll just have a salad. Put me down for the chicken caesar with—"

"Gah, Lu, stop! I'm still on Natsu's!"

Laughter. Warmth. I would miss these simple days, when my Fairy Tail friends' presence in my life was as constant and reliable as air, but we had our futures to look forward to and prepare for. For now, I would keep these memories in my heart and carry them with me until the days when we came together again. Despite my never-ending anxiety about the future, I did know that everything would be all right. With each end comes a new beginning, and my next adventure was only just about to start.


End file.
